A regional official in Siberia said on Friday that a woman had died of plague in the remote Irkutsk region, coinciding with Russian media reports indicating that dozens of people had been placed under quarantine.
Local media reported that the woman is called Daria Shepilova, a 28-year-old laboratory technician.
The People of Baikal news website reported that she was working at the Irkutsk Plague Control Institute, and it is likely that she was infected with pneumonic plague as a result of a broken test tube.
The website stated that up to 200 people who may have been in contact with her had been placed under quarantine, without providing further details.
Alexei Tsydinov, the governor of Russia’s Buryatia region, had previously said in a social media post that a woman in the neighboring Irkutsk region “died of the plague.”
According to the World Health Organization, pneumonic plague is highly contagious and can be fatal if not treated at an early stage.