World Status Report

This report intends to give the UTD Community a snapshot of international risks, and other issues as reported by the linked media 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

• Cameroon. Inter-community clashes between the Musgoum and Shuwa Arab ethnic groups in the town of Logone Birni, Far North of Cameroon on 10-13 August 2021 resulted in hundreds of casualties and at least 30 reported fatalities. Properties and houses in both communities were destroyed and burned down (ERCC).
• Ethiopia. Small children are among those held amid a new wave of detentions of ethnic Tigrayans suspected of supporting Tigray forces in Ethiopia’s growing war, one detainee says, while witnesses and a human rights watchdog describe fresh disappearances in recent weeks (AP).
• Iran has accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, the U.N. atomic watchdog said in a report on Tuesday seen by Reuters, a move raising tensions with the West as both sides seek to resume talks on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal (Reuters).

Natural Disasters

• Haiti. At least 2,000 fatalities and 9,900 injuries have been reported by the Haitian Civil Protection Agency following the 7.2 M earthquake of 14 August in the Nippes Department. In Sud Department, 1,597 people have died, 205 in Grand’Anse, 137 in Nippes and two in Nord-Ouest (ERCC).
• Dominican Republic – Haiti. Due to Tropical Cyclone GRACE, 108 people were evacuated in the Dominican Republic, more than 3,625 are affected and five houses have been destroyed. There have been widespread floods across southern Haiti (ERCC).
• Indonesia. Between 11-16 August, several regions were affected by floods caused by monsoon rains, resulting in displacement and damage (ERCC).
• Nigeria. The rainy season in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno State has caused damage to shelters and camps accommodating internally displaced people (ERCC).
• France. At least 15 forest fires have been affecting southern France in recent days. 2,200 firefighters are mobilised in response to the fires.  The fires have resulted in evacuation of thousands of people (ERCC).
• Spain. A forest fire event started on 17 August in central La Palma Island (Canary Islands) and has been burning an area in El Paso Municipality (ERCC).

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:

• Singapore has sentenced a British man to six weeks in prison, local media reported, after he repeatedly breached coronavirus protocols by refusing to wear a face mask in public (Guardian).
• Israel begins new measures requiring vaccination certificates or negative tests to enter public spaces (Guardian).
• The United States plans to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address ongoing COVID-19 risks (Reuters).
• Austria to impose an expiry date, of 270 days from the date of the second dose, on vaccination certificates that have been issued in the United Kingdom. (SchengenVisaInfo)

Global cases and deaths. As of 18 August, Johns Hopkins University counts 208,757,350 COVID-19 cases and 4,385,726 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 17 August 207,784,507 cases and 4,370,424 deaths.

As notable cases:

• New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case (Guardian).
• Cuba. Several doctors in Cuba have taken to social media to decry shortages of medicine, oxygen and other materials needed to battle a dire COVID-19 outbreak, in a rare public denunciation of conditions in the island’s hallowed healthcare system (Reuters).
• France registered 111 deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals on Tuesday, the first time since June 1 that the daily toll was more than 100, health ministry data showed (Reuters)
• The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, equating to around 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates (Reuters).
• World. The global number of new cases has been increasing for the last 2 months with over 4.4 million cases reported in the past week (9 – 15 August 2021), bringing the cumulative number of globally to cases to over 206 million. This increasing trend is largely attributed to increases in the Western Pacific Region and the Region of the Americas which reported 14% and 8% increases respectively as compared to the previous week. Overall, the number of deaths reported remained similar with over 66 000 deaths this week, as compared to the previous week. While the African Region reported the largest percentage decrease in case and death incidence, 23% and 18% respectively, data from the weekend is incomplete which might lead to an overestimation of the percentage change. The Western Pacific and the Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported the highest proportionate increases in death incidence of 23% and 15% respectively over the last seven days (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 17 August, Our World in Data reports 31.8% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 23.9% is fully vaccinated. 4.8 billion doses have been administered globally, and 34.54 million are now administered each day. Only 1.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 16 August over 4.46 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Ecuador is the latest country to announce it will administer booster jabs to people with weak immune systems, health minister Ximena Garzon has said (Guardian).
• Southeast Asian countries need more help securing Covid-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said (Guardian)
• The United Kingdom has approved the use of the US-made Moderna vaccine for 12 to 17 year olds. The Pfizer jab was given the same approval a few weeks ago (Guardian).

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.