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.

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

• Israel. Israeli jets struck what its military said were rocket launch sites in Lebanon early on Thursday in response to two rockets fired towards Israel from Lebanese territory, in an escalation of cross-border hostilities amid heightened friction with Iran (Reuters).
• Nicaragua. Police in Nicaragua have detained a vice-presidential hopeful seeking to contest the country’s November vote, her party said on Wednesday, as a crackdown by President Daniel Ortega’s government on opposition leaders and presidential challengers continues (Al Jazeera).

Natural Disasters

• India. Flooding is affecting several districts of West Bengal State (north-eastern India) following heavy rainfall and water discharge from several dams, resulting in casualties and displacement (ERCC).
• Pakistan. Heavy rain has been affecting several Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province over the past few days, resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• World. Last month was one of the world’s hottest Julys on record, behind only 2019 and 2016, with unusually high temperatures seen in regions from Finland to the United States, EU scientists said on Thursday (Reuters).
• Greece ordered more evacuations on an island near Athens on Thursday and battled a blaze near the site of the ancient Olympic Games in the western Peloponnese as wildfires burned for a third day (Reuters).
• Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has become a wildfire hotspot, with Turkey hit by its most intense blazes on record and a heatwave producing a high risk of further fires and smoke pollution around the region, a European Union atmosphere monitor said on Wednesday (Reuters).

Health

• South Africa. Healthcare services will continue to feel the effects of the riots, violence and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and some parts of Gauteng, even as efforts to rebuild get under way (M&G).

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:

• Philippines. Movement restrictions will be reimposed across greater Manila, an urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to 13 million people, from midnight on Thursday to try slow the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant (Reuters).
• Singapore‘s government recently said it was considering quarantine-free travel for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting in September, when 80% of the population should be inoculated (Reuters).
• The United States is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the United States to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, went into a sixth lockdown on Thursday (AP)

Global cases and deaths. As of 05 August, Johns Hopkins University counts 200,413,577 COVID-19 cases and 4,260,592 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 04 August 199,466,211 cases and 4,244,541 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Americas. The Delta variant of the coronavirus is “highly worrisome” as the mutation has spread to nearly two dozen countries across the Americas, officials with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) told reporters on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Indonesia. The COVID-19 death rate for people in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta who were not vaccinated was more than three times higher than those who were, according to new health ministry data (Reuters).
• China reported on Thursday a decline in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases for the first time this week, and a health official said he expected China’s latest outbreak, caused mainly by the Delta variant, to be largely under control within weeks (Reuters).
• Australia. Sydney reported a record daily number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday and the state of Victoria announced a one-week lockdown as Australia tried to contain the highly infectious Delta variant (Reuters).
• United States. Physicians working in Covid hot spots across the nation say that the patients in their hospitals are not like the patients they saw last year. Almost always unvaccinated, the new arrivals tend to be younger, many in their 20s or 30s. And they seem sicker than younger patients were last year, deteriorating more rapidly (NYT).
• Senegal cemeteries in the capital Dakar are reporting a surge in burials during its third coronavirus wave (AfricaNews).
• Word. Globally, weekly cases have been increasing for more than a month, with over 4 million cases reported in the past week. An average of over 570 000 cases were reported each day over the past week as compared to a little over 540 000 cases reported daily the week before. This increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific Regions which reported a 37% and 33% increase respectively as compared to the previous week. Overall, the number of deaths reported this week decreased by 8% as compared to the previous week, with over 64 000 deaths reported. However, the Western Pacific Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region showed a sharp increase in new deaths as compared to the previous week, 48% and 31% respectively. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now nearly 197 million and the number of cumulative deaths has reached 4.2 million (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 04 August, Our World in Data reports 29.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 15% is fully vaccinated. 4.32 billion doses have been administered globally, and 42.15 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 04 August over 3.98 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• South Korea plans to invest 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) to become one of the world’s five largest COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing bases by 2025, its President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday (Reuters).
• Pakistan. Tens of thousands of Pakistanis are thronging coronavirus vaccination centres daily after officials announced penalties for the unvaccinated, including blocked cell phones and barred access to offices, restaurants, shopping malls and transport (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.