Russian health authorities clarified on Thursday that rumors of a second individual falling ill after the tragic death of a lab worker at a plague research facility in Siberia are untrue. The regulator refuted false information circulating on social media about another case of illness, stating that thorough checks on all contacts of the deceased worker revealed no health issues related to infectious diseases. The 28-year-old lab employee, Daria Shipilova, passed away from pneumonia of unknown origin. Russian officials swiftly implemented precautionary measures following her death at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, assuring that she was vaccinated and immune to the infections she worked with. The World Health Organization initially assessed the public health risk as low but expressed the need for more information from Russian authorities to conduct a comprehensive risk evaluation. Health agencies in Canada and the U.S. are closely monitoring the situation, with minimal perceived risk to their respective populations. The CDC has prepared to monitor and screen travelers from Siberia, where direct flights to the U.S. have been suspended since 2022 due to the Ukraine conflict.