Russia denies plague risk after second Siberian case

Russia warned Wednesday against "false information" as reports emerged of a second suspected plague case in Siberia, with Washington and Brussels calling for transparency and neighboring Mongolia tightening health surveillance. Russian authorities have played down the reports, determining the woman died of pneumonia and insisting there was no risk of an outbreak. The Russian health agency said Wednesday that it had determined "there are no epidemic risks for the population," citing extensive investigations, compliance with lab protocols, and negative results from nearly 5,000 tests. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that "the vast majority of what the media is reporting regarding this situation is false information," urging reliance on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor. The United States, the European Union, and the World Health Organization have all called on Russia to be transparent about the situation, with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urging Moscow to clarify "media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause." The WHO said its initial risk assessment was moderate to low for the Irkutsk region, low for Russia as a whole, and very low for Europe.