Russia downplays plague reports

According to Jamaica Observer (General News), MOSCOW, RUSSIA (AFP) — Russia on Monday sought to downplay reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, even as US President Donald Trump said Washington was closely monitoring the situation and offered US help. Reports last Friday that pneumonic plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region, sparked alarm. “We’re looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia. “We’ll help them, we’ll help them as much as we can.” said Trump. The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said the dead woman may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube. Other media reported a possible link betwe