Kremlin tells Russians to ignore ‘rumors’ of a possible plague outbreak in Siberia. U.S. and EU officials say they’re monitoring the situation.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged Russians to rely solely on official information about a possible plague outbreak in the Irkutsk region.

“The lead agency with expertise in this area is Rospotrebnadzor [Russia’s national public health and consumer protection agency]. People should rely on its official statements and disregard rumors, speculation, and so on. Rospotrebnadzor has highly qualified professionals in this field,” Peskov said.

Reports of a possible plague outbreak in the Irkutsk region emerged after an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died at a hospital in Shelekhov. Sources cited by several media outlets said she may have had pneumonic plague. Rospotrebnadzor said in an official statement that the woman died of “pneumonia of unknown cause.”

On October 3, authorities in Shelekhov urged people in a social media post to avoid traveling to the city, but quickly deleted the post. On October 4, the news outlet Lyudi Baikala reported that several hospitals in Irkutsk had been placed under quarantine. The report was neither confirmed nor denied, further fueling rumors of an outbreak.

U.S. and EU authorities said they were aware of a possible plague outbreak and were “closely monitoring” developments in the Irkutsk region.