Russia denies imposing anti-plague measures after lab worker death

What the report says

Russian authorities have denied that they imposed broad anti-plague restrictions after the death of a laboratory technician in Siberia prompted concern about a possible case of pneumonic plague. According to Al Jazeera’s report on Tuesday, the woman, identified in Russian media as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-plague Research Institute in the Irkutsk region before her death, which was described as suspected pneumonic plague.

Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said no plague cases had been found among staff who had been in contact with her over the previous 10 days. The agency said those contacts were identified and placed under medical observation in hospital, with daily testing. The institute also said testing during the autopsy did not detect microorganisms linked to its work, and that results showed only COVID-19 and rhinovirus infections, not other dangerous pathogens.

Local officials said a hospital in the Shelekhov district had been quarantined as a precaution, but no confirmed dangerous diagnosis had been announced. Russian media reported that about 200 people had previously been quarantined, while one local official said most of those under precautionary quarantine had already been released.

The case drew international attention because of the risk posed by pneumonic plague, the most contagious form of the disease. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for more transparency, while the World Health Organization said Russia had told it there were no plague cases in Irkutsk. That leaves open the question of whether the death was connected to plague at all.