A woman is said to have died from the plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia. The Kremlin appears to be concealing information about the tragedy.
The local press wrote about at least 200 people being isolated after they had contact with her. The victim was an employee of a laboratory and is believed to have contracted the disease at work, after a test tube broke, regional journalists reported. Officially, neither the diagnosis nor the details of the death of the 20-year-old woman have been confirmed.
Several hospitals in the Irkutsk region are under quarantine. Journalists have written that individuals suspected of having been in contact with the deceased were taken to medical institutions by ambulance, escorted by the FSB, for investigations.
White House representatives have clarified that they are monitoring the situation and its development. On the other hand, Russian authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the diagnosis, speaking only of a particularly dangerous infection, noting that the death was caused by pneumonia of unknown origin.
Officially, information about the plague case is not made public, and journalists claim that several doctors and patients have conveyed details referring to the subject. Doctors would have been suggested to prepare the protective equipment, and at some enterprises, wearing masks has become mandatory.
On the internet, there have also appeared the accounts of a pregnant blogger, who went to the hospital for investigations and was asked to fill out a form regarding contact persons and health status. According to her, the sheet indicated information about the plague, writes the publication People of Baikal.