A 28-year-old employee at a pathogens research institute in Siberia has reportedly died from pneumonia of an “unknown cause,” prompting Russian authorities to quarantine the hospital to which she was admitted and begin monitoring her contacts.

The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, southeastern Siberia, is a lab dedicated to monitoring dangerous pathogens. According to the institute’s government webpage, its scientists work with “especially dangerous diseases,” including cholera, brucellosis, tularemia, anthrax, and arbovirus infections.

Russian authorities said Sunday that they found no evidence that the employee’s death was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with, the Associated Press reports. Previous unconfirmed media reports suggested she might have died of pneumonic plague, which occurs when the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis infects the lungs. The infection can spread from person to person.

“No microorganisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient,” the Russian public health agency Rospotrebnadzor stated, according to CNN. The agency added that the “epidemiological situation” in the region was stable.

Media reports suggesting a lab leak at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute have understandably spurred panic. As illustrated by the hantavirus scare back in May, public anxiety over another pandemic has remained high ever since covid-19 swept the globe. For those who subscribe to the unproven theory that covid-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, this latest scare may feel particularly alarming.

It can’t be overstated, however, that there is currently no evidence to suggest the deceased lab worker was infected by any of the pathogens at the Anti-Plague Research Institute.

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