World Status Report
August 4, 2021
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.
More health and security information 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, and the CDC, ECDC, and WHO sites. Not all advise in these sites will apply to US travelers.
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
- Madagascar has arrested 21 more suspects, including 12 military personnel, in connection with a plot to kill President Andry Rajoelina and topple the government, a senior prosecutor said (Reuters).
- Hong Kong‘s anti-corruption watchdog on Monday charged a singer and prominent pro-democracy activist, Anthony Wong, with “corrupt conduct” at a 2018 election rally, the latest legal action against dissent by authorities in the Chinese-ruled city (Reuters).
- Ethiopia’s nine-month-old war in Tigray is spilling across regional boundaries to new parts of the country, triggering growing fears of starvation and atrocities as fresh reports emerge of another possible massacre (G&M)
Natural Disasters
- China. The number of casualties following widespread floods in Zhengzhou and Xinxiangthe (Province of Henan) has increased (ERCC).
- Niger. Heavy rainfall since mid-June has caused extensive floods, resulting in casualties (ERCC).
- Philippines. Heavy rainfall hit several parts of the Philippines from 28 July – 1 August, triggering landslides and floods, resulting in displacement and damage (ERCC).
- United States. A number of wildfires continue to burn across western USA and Hawaii, which have resulted in displacement and damage (ERCC).
- Greece. A forest fire started on 1 August and is burning across northern Rhodes Island, causing damage and large parts of the islands to experience power and telecommunication outages (ERCC).
- Turkey. Firefighting planes from Spain and Croatia joined the battle against wildfires raging for a seventh day near Turkey’s southern resorts (Reuters)
Health
- Nigeria has been hit by a surge in cholera cases in recent weeks, focused on the country’s north and adding to a public health crisis accompanied by a rise in COVID-19 cases (Reuters).
COVID-19
International preventative measures against COVID-19, including entry restrictions and in-country mobility remain fluid, and can be imposed without prior notice. 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:
- Scotland. The legal requirement for physical distancing in Scotland will be removed from next week (Guardian).
- Uzbekistan has passed a law allowing employers to prevent staff from working if they are not vaccinated against coronavirus, state media reported (Guardian).
- Australia. Vaccinated Australians will be able to head overseas again to visit family and friends when 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated under a national pandemic exit plan, the prime minister said last week (Guardian). New South Wales could ease lockdown restrictions if 50% of the population is vaccinated. The current lockdown is due to be lifted on 29 August (Reuters).
- Morocco introduces new coronavirus restrictions, including a curfew from 9pm to 5am, as infection rates rise (Guardian).
- Guadeloupe (France’s overseas territory) will to go into a new lockdown for at least three weeks to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic (Guardian).
- Vietnam extends strict measures in Ho Chi Minh City and other cities and provinces in the south for 2 more weeks (Reuters).
- Philippines has announced an extension to a night curfew in Manila as it tightens restrictions to tackle a potential surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant (Reuters).
- Travel. A travel boom is looming, as vaccinations increase and caseloads become more manageable. But is the industry ready? (WEF)
Global cases and deaths. As of 03 August, Johns Hopkins University counts 199,142,755 COVID-19 cases and 4,240,279 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 02 August 198,234,951 cases and 4,227,359 deaths.
As notable cases:
- China authorities to test all Wuhan’s 11 million residents amid new Covid cases (Guardian).
- Indonesia’s health workers are struggling under the weight of new cases seven days after the world’s fourth most populous country faced its deadliest day with 2,069 deaths (Guardian).
- Japan is to focus on hospitalising patients who are seriously ill with Covid-19 and those at risk of becoming so while others isolate at home, Reuters reports, amid worries about a strained medical system as cases surge in Olympics host city Tokyo (Guardian).
- Africa. Coronavirus deaths in Africa rose rapidly over the past month, as fatalities surged by 80 percent within the last four weeks, the World Health Organization has said. Southern Africa accounts for 64 percent of the death rate in the past month and North Africa accounts for 24 percent. Both subregions accounted for 88 percent of all reported deaths in the past month (CNN).
- El Salvador has detected its first case of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, Health Minister Francisco Alabi said on Saturday (Reuters).
- South Korea has detected its first two cases of the Delta Plus COVID-19 variant (Reuters).
- Delta variant. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the variant is “likely more severe” than previous variants. The agency cited research in Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that people infected with the Delta variant were more likely to be hospitalized than patients earlier in the pandemic (Reuters).
Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 02 August, Our World in Data reports 28.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 14.8% is fully vaccinated. 4.21 billion doses have been administered globally, and 38.67 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 as of 01 August over 3.87 billion administered vaccine doses.
As notable cases:
- India. Johnson & Johnson has withdrawn its application seeking accelerated emergency approval of its Covid-19 vaccine in India, the country’s drugs regulator has said (Guardian).
- Pakistan hit a target on Tuesday to vaccinate one million people a day against Covid-19 (Guardian).
- World. This is how much work is left to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 (WEF)
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.
