Irkutsk (Russia) (AFP) – Reports of a plague laboratory worker’s death in Siberia have caused waves of speculation outside Russia, but in the city where she worked, many appeared unfazed.

The laboratory worker’s death was first reported on Friday. Several Russian media outlets reported she had died from pneumonic plague, a highly contagious form of the deadly disease, and that dozens of people had been quarantined.

But Russian officials downplayed the reports this week, saying that postmortem tests did not detect the disease in her body and that no special measures were in place.

“If it were really serious, I think they would have shut everything down by now,” one man, who did not provide his name, told AFP in the remote Siberian city of Irkutsk.

“As it stands, nobody really seems to care,” he added.

Another man in Irkutsk said he had asked his parents to take precautions like washing their hands, but that he did not view it as a “serious threat.”

Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported on Friday that the laboratory technician, whom it named as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, may have contracted plague from a broken test tube.

Other media reported a possible link between her death and a lab accident at the facility.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington was closely monitoring the situation and called for Russia to be “transparent”.

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