The Russian authorities today ensured that the epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region of Siberia is stable, after having activated several emergency measures in recent days due to the death of an investigator in an alleged laboratory accident.
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05/10/2026
by
Lusa
“ A health and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and in the cities of Irkutsk and Shelejov is stable”, noted Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian national public health agency, quoted by Europa Press news agency.
The investigator was not identified by this Russian entity, which claimed that measures were still under way in response to the incident, which took place on Friday at the Pest Research Institute in Shelekhov.
The agency also pointed out that the examinations carried out on the victim’s body “did not detect microorganisms associated with their professional activities”, after having died due to “a pneumonia of unknown etiology”, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.
The entity stressed that due to the victim’s profession “exhaustive epidemic measures” were adopted to address the situation, including “identifying the widest possible circle of people who were in contact with the patient”.
“ The results revealed two cases of Covid-19 and two cases of rhinovirus. No other infectious agents were detected,” he added, stressing that “no contact showed any health change related to an infectious pathology”.
On his social networks, the governor of Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, wrote that “all patient contacts have been identified, examined and are under medical observation, with daily laboratory tests”, after alarms have been given in the area due to the death of this worker.
On Friday, the governor of the neighboring region of Buriacia, Alexey Tsydenov, stated that the woman had died “possibly of pneumonic plague”.
“There are no outbreaks of plague in the province, including the border area with Mongolia,” he said on his social networks.
The Russian authorities, which did not officially confirm that the death was caused by the plague, put about 200 people under observation following the incident, which would have involved an accident in the laboratory where the victim worked and which would have led to the release of pathogens, a hypothesis that was also not confirmed by Moscow.