World Status Report

This report intends to give the UTD Community a snapshot of international risks, and other issues as reported by the linked official sources from the U.S. and other countries.

Please note the publication date of this report, and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.

Security

• Mexico. Unique among countries in the world, Mexico considers Femicide as a crime distinct from homicide. Simply put, Femicide — which is sometimes referred to as “feminicide”–  is the crime of murdering a woman or girl on account of her gender. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, the documented numbers of Femicide in parts of Mexico have skyrocketed. This includes a part of the State of Mexico, near Mexico City, known as The Periphery (UN Dispatch).
• Ethiopia. The armed group fighting the Ethiopian army and its allied regional forces in Tigray claims it is now in a position to march towards the country’s capital, Addis Ababa (Nation).
• Somalia has delayed elections that were due to start on Sunday after months of political crisis in the deeply unstable Horn of Africa country, officials told AFP (EastAfrican).
• Iran. There’s a water shortage in Iran as temperatures hit 120F. Security forces are firing on protesters to stop demonstrations demanding water. (MSN).
• Tunisian President Kais Saied fired Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament, causing one of the country’s biggest crises since its 2011 revolution. The foreign ministries of Germany, Russia, and Turkey voiced concern. (Reuters).
• Guatemala. Hundreds of Guatemalans protested the firing of prominent anticorruption investigator Juan Francisco Sandoval, who fled the country after being removed from office last week (Reuters).

Natural Disasters

• China. Tropical Cyclone IN-FA made landfall in Zhoushan Archipelago (Zhejiang Province, central coast of eastern China), south of Shanghai. According to the official Chinese news agency (Xinhua), over 1.5 million people were evacuated, while in Shanghai about 360,000 people were evacuated (ERCC).
• India. Heavy rains since 23 July have triggered landslides and floods in 9 districts of the Pune and Konkan divisions in Maharashtra. 112 deaths have been reported and 99 people are missing following landslides. Over 135,000 people have been evacuated (ERCC).
• Italy. Since 24 July, a number of forest fires have been affecting Sardinia, particularly Oristano and Nuoro Provinces (central Sardinia), leading to the evacuation of 80 people (ERCC).
• Spain. Several forest fires are burning across Spain, resulting in evacuations, according to the Spanish National Centre for Emergencies (CENEM) (ERCC).
• Belgium and France. Severe weather, including heavy rainfall, hailstorms, strong winds, and thunderstorms, has been affecting southern Belgium (in particular the Wallonia Region) and parts of France since 23 July, causing floods, mudslides, and a number of weather-related incidents (ERCC).

Health

• Bangladesh and Nigeria. Since the last update on 18 June 2021, new cholera cases have been reported worldwide. The two countries reporting the majority of new cases since the previous update are Bangladesh and Nigeria (ECDC).
• United States. For the first time ever, researchers have reported cases of people carrying or infected with strains of the dangerous fungus Candida auris that were resistant to all classes of antifungal drugs before any treatment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The agency also reported evidence of some transmission of the strains within health facilities. The CDC reported on five cases, three in Washington, D.C., and two in Texas. In both locations, the cases were clustered within facilities. The facilities were not identified, but the fungus is most commonly diagnosed in very sick people who are in specialized long-term facilities (STAT).

COVID-19

International preventative measures against COVID-19, including entry restrictions and in-country mobility remain fluid, and can be imposed without prior notice. Details for each country can be found in the travel advisories issued by the governments of the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.  The UNWTO and IATA Destination Tracker offers relevant information on a destination status. The Timeline of EU Member States Reopening Their Borders  offers a list of opened EU countries for travelers, and dates of warned opening.

As notable cases:

• The United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and the rising number of U.S. coronavirus cases (Reuters).
• Ireland. Restaurants, cafés and pubs in Ireland can resume indoor hospitality on Monday, with service limited to adults who are vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19, plus children (Guardian).
• Vietnam. More than 10 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam will be placed under a strict overnight curfew beginning on Monday, an unprecedented move to curb infections as Vietnam battles a rapid Covid-19 surge, AFP reports (Guardian).
• Rwanda has extended the lockdown in its capital Kigali and eight more districts for five more days (EastAfrican).
• Indonesia. Small shops, streetside restaurants and some shopping malls reopened in coronavirus-battered Indonesia on Monday after the government loosened a shutdown despite warnings it could unleash another Covid-19 wave (IBT).
• Malaysia has announced it won’t extend a national state of emergency when it ends on 1 August. The measure has been in place since January (Reuters).
• Algeria is set to reimpose restrictions on gatherings from today to tackle the spread of the Delta variant in the country (Reuters).

Global cases and deaths. As of 26 July, Johns Hopkins University counts 194,321,091 COVID-19 cases and 4,162,527 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports 193,798,265 cases and 4,158,041 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Israel. At least 12 cases of the “Delta plus” variant have been found in Israel, Hebrew media reported on Monday, as the number of patients in serious condition in the country continued to rise and reached 108 cases (Jpost).
• Thailand reports record number of new cases for second day (Guardian).
• China reported 76 new Covid cases on 25 July, the highest since the end of January amid a surge of local infections in the eastern city of Nanjing, as it starts a second round of mass testing to contain the outbreak (Guardian).
• Mexico. Only three states are low-risk green, down from 19 on the previous map. Mexico City and México state will switch to high risk orange on the coronavirus stoplight map on Monday as the third wave of the pandemic continues to worsen (MND).
• Australia. The Australian state of New South Wales has reported a rise in new COVID-19 cases, despite a lengthy stay-at-home order (Reuters).
• United Kingdom. New COVID-19 cases have fallen in Britain from 21,795 to 29,173. New cases have been falling over the last 5 days – but officials are cautious about whether this is a trend (Reuters).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 25 July, Our World in Data reports 27.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 13.8% is fully vaccinated. 3.89 billion doses have been administered globally, and 32.03 million are now administered each day. Only 1.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports over 3.64 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Tanzania has received its first shipment of a million vaccines from Covax, the global vaccine sharing programme (Guardian).
• South African pharmaceutical company Aspen said it is releasing its first batch of vaccines manufactured in Africa (Guardian).
• France has reached a vaccination milestone as 40 million citizens have now received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine (Guardian).
• South Korea has begun inoculating people aged 55-59 with COVID-19 vaccines. About 6.17 million people – or 84% of those in their 50s – have signed up for a jab (Reuters).
• Vietnam has received 3 million Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the United States, with the country’s ambassador to the United States suggesting more donations could be in the pipeline (Reuters).
• Ghana hopes to receive over 18 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines before October, President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a speech on Sunday (Reuters).

Please note the publication date of this report and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.