Russia denies reports of 2nd ‘plague’ case in Siberia’s Irkutsk

Russia on Thursday denied reports of a second case of illness in its Siberian region of Irkutsk amid quarantine measures following reports of a possible "plague" outbreak.

Citing the press service of Russia's consumer and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, state news agency Tass reported that the agency described information circulating on social media about the issue as "incorrect."

The statement said no incidents involving pathogenic microorganisms were identified and that compliance with "proper control measures during work with pathogenic microorganisms" has been confirmed.

"Comprehensive preventive and anti-epidemic measures have been implemented. There are no epidemic risks to the population of the city of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region," it said.

The watchdog also said that as of Wednesday, monitoring had been completed for over 90% of contacts in the Irkutsk region and no health issues linked to infectious diseases were found.

On Friday, Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said he convened an extraordinary meeting of the regional sanitary and anti-epidemic commission following reports of a suspected "highly dangerous infectious disease" in a local resident.

Rospotrebnadzor said at the time that an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East was diagnosed with "pneumonia of unknown etiology."

On Friday, local outlet People of Baikal reported that the institute employee, identified in the report as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, allegedly broke a test tube containing "pneumonic plague."

The outlet reported that she became ill after allegedly breaking the test tube late last month and was hospitalized in the town of Shelekhov, where she died Friday evening.

The Kremlin said the "overwhelming majority" of reports regarding the situation were "false information" and urged citizens to heed Rospotrebnadzor's official statements.

The watchdog said Monday that the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Irkutsk was "calm."

US President Donald Trump said the same day that Washington was closely monitoring the reported case of "pneumonic plague" in Russia and pledged assistance.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russia a day later to provide full transparency on the situation.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it was seeking additional information from Russia on the death of the institute employee and reports of the death of a second employee.