Russia lifts quarantine in Irkutsk region, where lab worker allegedly died of plague
on Google
Quarantine has been lifted in Russia's Irkutsk region, where a lab technician at the Anti-Plague Institute of Eastern Siberia and the Far East died on Oct. 2, Russian state media reported on Oct. 8.
Initial reports raised concerns that 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked at the institute, might have died of pneumonic plague after a laboratory accident.
Citing a source close to law enforcement agencies, the independent Siberian news outlet Lyudi Baikala (People of Baikal) wrote on Oct. 2 that FSB officers, Russia's security services, had escorted ambulances transporting people who had been in contact with Shipilova for medical examinations.
RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities also reported on Oct. 5, citing a relative of an institute employee who spoke on condition of anonymity, that more than 60 staff members had been confined to the facility as a precautionary measure.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify this information.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's federal public health agency, publicly acknowledged that "anti-epidemic measures" were linked to the illness of an institute employee. However, the Russian state media and local authorities have claimed that it was "pneumonia of unknown etiology."
Although he didn't name Shipilova, Irkutsk Oblast Governor Igor Kobzev said in his Oct. 8 Telegram address that "the patient" had been vaccinated against dangerous infections she worked with at the institute and that proper safety controls when working with pathogenic microorganisms had been "confirmed."
He also said that "nearly 5,000 laboratory tests" found no dangerous pathogenic microorganisms.
