Russia lifts plague lab-related measures. Should China – and the world – be relieved?

Moscow says the incident is over but questions remain among Chinese commenters and others on social media globally

While Russian authorities have denied the death of a woman who worked in a laboratory at an anti-plague institute in Siberia was connected with the pathogen, the incident has sparked global concern – including in China – over a potential spread of the disease and a lack of transparency.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he planned to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after it emerged late last week that the 28-year-old female lab technician had been admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia and died.

Initial unconfirmed reports linked the death to pneumonic plague – a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis – following a laboratory exposure at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

On Thursday, Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said the region had completed quarantine measures and monitoring of close contacts of the technician, who had a case of “community-acquired pneumonia”.