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 and 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

• Afghanistan. Taliban gunmen fired in the air on Tuesday to scatter protesters in the Afghan capital Kabul, witnesses said, as video showed scores scurrying to escape volleys of gunfire (Reuters). Afghanistan is facing the collapse of basic services and food and other aid is about to run out, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday (Reuters).
• Guinea. The soldiers who seized power in Guinea over the weekend have consolidated their takeover with the installation of army officers at the top of Guinea’s eight regions and various administrative districts (Reuters).
• Nigeria. Mobile telephone networks were shut down in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara, residents said on Monday, after authorities ordered a telecoms blackout to help armed forces tackle armed gangs of kidnappers terrorising the area (Reuters).
• Myanmar‘s shadow government, formed by opponents of military rule, called for a nationwide uprising against the junta on Tuesday, amid reports of new protests and a flare-up in fighting between the army and ethnic military groups (Reuters).
• Montenegro police used teargas against rock-throwing protesters during Sunday’s enthronement of a Serbian Orthodox Church cleric as the nation’s religious leader, with dozens reported injured (Reuters).
• India. Thousands of Indian farmers gathered in a large grain market outside New Delhi on Tuesday, protesting new agricultural laws they say threaten their livelihoods and actions by police during similar demonstrations last week (Reuters).
• Israel launched airstrikes on what it said was a Hamas military site in the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, after incendiary balloons were sent into Israeli territory, the army said (AP)

Natural Disasters

• Philippines. Tropical Cyclone CONSON (named JOLINA in the Philippines), made landfall over Samar Island on 6 September and is crossing Masbate Island (ERCC).
• Thailand-Malaysia. Heavy rain has been affecting northern and central Thailand as well as the neighbouring Malaysia since 3 September, causing floods that have resulted in population displacements and damage (ERCC).
• Nepal. Severe weather including heavy rain and thunderstorms continues to affect parts of Nepal, causing floods and landslides and leading to casualties (ERCC).
• Indonesia. Heavy rain continues to hit several parts of Indonesia over the past few days, causing floods, triggering landslides and resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• Mexico. On 3-4 September, floods caused by heavy rain were reported across Municipalities of Morelos State (south-central Mexico), resulting in casualties (ERCC).
• Brazil. Fires ramped up in the Brazilian rainforest in August, according to government data released this week, with fires for the month well above the historic average for the third consecutive year (Reuters).

Health

• Saudi Arabia. Since the previous update published on 3 August, and as of 1 September 2021, one new MERS-CoV case was reported by Saudi Arabian health authorities (ECDC).
• Ethiopia. Footage of war-hit northern Ethiopia published by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday reflected the severe humanitarian crisis there, after the United Nations warned that a de facto blockade on aid is bringing millions to the brink of famine (Reuters).
• Iraq. With this year’s lack of rainfall, Iraq is badly short of water, and officials trying to revive rivers like the Sirwan say lower flows from upstream neighbours Iran and Turkey are worsening home-grown problems such as leaks, ageing pipes and illegal siphoning off of supplies (Reuters).
• India. Authorities in India’s southern Kerala state are racing to contain an outbreak of the Nipah virus. A 12-year-old boy died in Kerala over the weekend, prompting stepped-up efforts to trace his contacts. New infections have been confirmed (CBS).
• Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization (WHO) reported an additional 629 monkeypox cases in the past six weeks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Six additional monkeypox fatalities have also been reported. Since the beginning of the year through August 8, 2,523 cases have been reported with 66 deaths (Outbreak News).

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:

• Nigeria. The governor of Rivers State in Nigeria’s oil-producing Delta region said he may be forced to reimpose COVID-19 lockdown measures if residents did not comply with prevention protocols amid a rise in cases (Reuters).
• Philippines capital region will remain under the second strictest coronavirus containment measures (Reuters).
• Hong Kong will allow some residents from China and the former Portuguese colony of Macau will be allowed to enter the city without undergoing quarantine from Sept. 15, relaxing strict border restrictions to curb COVID-19 (Reuters).
• Vietnam. A man who returned to his home in southern Vietnam after traveling to Ho Chi Minh City for work received a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday for spreading the coronavirus, state news media reported (NYT).  Restrictions have been extended in Viet Nam’s capital, Hanoi, for a further two weeks. Authorities are launching a mass testing campaign in an effort to try to slow a rise in infections (Reuters).
• New Zealand. Most parts of New Zealand are easing public restrictions starting from 11:59 p.m. Tuesday local time. The country is betting that a combination of swift vaccinations for its 5 million residents and declining daily cases will again stamp out the virus within its shores (Guardian).
• Israel said it will begin allowing tourists traveling in small groups of between five and 30 people to enter the country in a pilot program starting Sept. 19, in a bid to boost tourism revenue (Reuters).

Global cases and deaths. As of 07 September, Johns Hopkins University counts 221,290,925 COVID-19 cases and 4,579,064 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 07 September 220,904,838 cases and 4,570,946 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Singapore‘s health ministry recorded 328 new domestic coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest daily number of new infections in more than a year (Reuters).
• India. As COVID-19 cases and deaths exploded in India in April and May, New Delhi’s premier Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and several others ran so short of oxygen that many patients in the capital suffocated. Now India braces for another possible surge in infections around its September-November festival season (Reuters).
• United States. More than 40 million cases of the coronavirus have been recorded according to a New York Times database. 47 percent of Americans are not fully vaccinated, and health officials say that most of the patients who are being hospitalized and dying are not vaccinated, and it is unvaccinated people who are driving the current surge and burdening the health care system (NYT). Americans will most likely pay significantly more for Covid medical care during this new wave of cases — whether that’s a routine coronavirus test or a lengthy hospitalization. Earlier in the pandemic, most major health insurers voluntarily waived costs associated with a Covid treatment. Patients didn’t have to pay their normal co-payments or deductibles for emergency room visits or hospital stays (NYT).
• Australia. Confirmed daily COVID-19 infections have fallen for a third straight day in Sydney, Australia, as the outbreak spurred a rise in vaccination rates in the hard-hit western suburbs (Reuters).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 06 September, Our World in Data reports 40.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 5.52 billion doses have been administered globally, and 31.2 million are now administered each day. Only 1.9% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 06 September over 5.35 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Chile has approved a coronavirus vaccine for children over age 6, with its health regulator giving the green light to China’s Sinovac shot (Reuters).
• Cuba on Monday began vaccinating children as young as 2 years old against the coronavirus with a domestically developed vaccine as it seeks to reopen schools (WaPo).
• Brazil’s health regulator suspended for 90 days the use of just over 12.1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinovac after learning that vials containing the shots were filled at an unauthorized production base (WaPo)
• Africa. At a briefing yesterday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office warned that 80% of the countries could miss the 10% vaccination goal.  As a whole, about 3% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated (WHO).
• India has approved a new COVID vaccine that uses circular strands of DNA to prime the immune system against the virus SARS-CoV-2. ZyCoV-D, which is administered into the skin without an injection, has been found to be 67% protective against symptomatic COVID-19 in clinical trials, and will probably start to be administered in India this month  (Nature).
• Peru has reached an agreement with Russia to install a plant to produce the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine (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.