America’s top diplomat has urged Russia to share more information about the death of a laboratory technician at a plague research institute last week.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Iceland on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), said the global community needed further details.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during his visit to Iceland on Tuesday, October 6. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That’s what they should do. That’s what we hope they will do,” he said.
“And the more we can learn about what happened, then the better all of us can be in a position of responding.”
Rubio said the US government was monitoring developments “very closely, hour by hour”.
He also said the US government had “measures” available to help Russia if the situation became more serious than has so far been acknowledged, but required more information before it could intervene.
Russian authorities have sought to allay international fears over the death of the researcher from the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia.
Lab workers at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. This undated photo was released in 2019. Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East
She was identified by local media as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who was reportedly hospitalised on September 29.
She is believed to have died at a hospital in Shelekhov, a town about 20km south-west of Irkutsk, at the end of last week.
Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said she died of a pneumonia of “unknown” origin. The agency downplayed suspicions that her illness was related to her work.
This week, officials began isolating her contacts and introducing new disease-control measures at local hospitals.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” to discuss the death of the researcher.
Countries neighbouring south-east Russia have said they are monitoring and have put safeguard measures in place.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have implemented quarantine controls at state border crossing points.
– With CNN