{
  "id": 12390869,
  "title": "No plague cases detected in Siberia, Russia says, and locals play down scare",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/no-plague-cases-detected-in-siberia-russia-says-and-locals-play-down",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-06T13:54:42.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/world-news/russia-says-no-plague-cases-detected-among-contacts-of-deceased-lab-worker-4934632"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "MOSCOW, October 6 - Russia's health watchdog has confirmed there have been no cases of plague among people who have been in contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, local media report. The 28-year-old woman, whose cause of death remains unexplained, passed away on Friday due to pneumonia of an unspecified origin, raising international concern. Rospotrebnadzor, the health watchdog, stated that extensive testing of the deceased woman's body found no microorganisms linked to her work at the institute in Irkutsk. The deputy head of the nearby Shelekhov district, Elena Sofina, noted that a \"dangerous diagnosis\" had not been confirmed and that 60% of those placed in quarantine as a precaution had already been released. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, expressed gratitude for an offer of help from US President Donald Trump, although Moscow has not confirmed whether they intend to accept it. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that it was Russia's responsibility to share more information about the situation. The WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, confirmed that Russian authorities had not yet officially responded to a request for information from the World Health Organization. All patient contacts have been identified and are currently being monitored for illness, with none showing symptoms so far.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}