Moscow, Russia - Russia on Monday sought to downplay reports that a laboratory technician had died of the plague, even as President Donald Trump said he was monitoring the situation and offered US help.
Reports on Friday that pneumonic plague had killed a 28-year-old woman who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, sparked alarm.
"We're looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague. "We'll help them, we'll help them as much as we can."
The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said the dead woman may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.
As many as 200 people with whom she may have had contact are now under quarantine, the People of Baikal outlet added.
Russian officials have stressed, however, that postmortem tests had not detected the disease in the woman.
Irkutsk Regional Governor Igor Kobzev said Monday that a special expert commission inspection in the region had found that "the cause of death was pneumonia of undetermined aetiology."
He said on Telegram that Russia's consumer and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had determined, following tests, that "no microorganisms linked to the young woman's professional work were found in her biological samples."
He added that there had been "no new cases of staff from the anti-plague institute seeking medical attention" since the woman's death.
Asked about the situation on Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters to "rely on Rospotrebnadzor's official statements rather than… rumors and speculations."