© ReutersA fireball blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200km away in Yekaterinburg, about two weeks ago.
In a decree posted on the administration's website, Ivan Feklin, the deputy governor of the region and head of the emergency response team for coordinating preventative measures for rabies, is tasked with confirming a complex set of measures to stabilize the region's rabies outbreak for the duration of the emergency regime.
The regional budget has allocated 2.44 million rubles ($78,000) for the purpose.
According to the regional administration of the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service, the region has been hit by a complicated epizootic situation with rabies in animals, Interfax reported.
Currently, there have been 106 instances of rabies recorded in 93 towns and villages throughout 17 municipal districts and in 9 cities of the Chelyabinsk region, including 4 in the city of Chelyabinsk.
The regional branch of the veterinary watchdog has sent 30 samples of biological material for rabies testing since the beginning of the year. In 85 percent of cases, the tests have confirmed the presence of rabies.
Veterinary services in Chelyabinsk will be conducting a month-long campaign for rabies prevention until April 7. Residents will be able to have their pets examined for the virus, as well as inoculated against it.
But since they have been dealing with this since the beginning of the year, the problem might predate the February 15th cometary blast.