White House says it’s monitoring reports of plague in Russia, ‘assessing options’

According to a White House official, the administration is monitoring reports of a suspected plague outbreak in Russia's Irkutsk region. The official stated that the administration is "assessing options." In the town of Shelekhov, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute passed away at a local hospital. Reports indicate the individual had pneumonic plague, although Rospotrebnadzor claims the cause was "pneumonia of unknown origin."

Several hospitals in Irkutsk have implemented a three-week quarantine as a precaution. Some healthcare sources report that doctors in Irkutsk are openly discussing the possibility of a plague outbreak, despite the lack of official confirmation.