While the case has raised global concerns, Russian state TV and other national state-controlled media have steered clear of the subject. Some state-sponsored news outlets withdrew earlier reports about the case, which has topped independent online news outlets.
Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Sunday the lab worker was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” meaning its origin was not known.
In its official, tersely worded statements, it does not link the case to pneumonic plague, saying only that “extensive” testing found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
A state TV station in Irkutsk reported she died Oct. 2 in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk.
Officials have quarantined a hospital and are monitoring the contacts of the worker, who died of what unconfirmed media reports said could have been pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.
Moscow informed the World Health Organization that no case of plague has been registered in the Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would speak about the issue “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and report about it “probably tomorrow.” Wednesday is the Kremlin leader's 74th birthday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that a Putin-Trump call hasn’t been set yet but could be organized quickly.
Trump said the U.S. stands ready to help Russia. Asked what the U.S. intelligence community was saying about the case, Trump said the U.S. is in “very deep discussions” on the topic.
