After plague death reports at Siberia lab, Russia says situation under control

Moscow on Monday downplayed reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, stressing that postmortem tests had not detected the disease, while Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation.

Reports on Friday that plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region, sparked alarm.

The news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said she may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.

Other media reported a possible link between her death and a lab accident at the facility.