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

• Syria. The future for Syria’s people is “increasingly bleak”, UN-appointed rights experts said on Tuesday, highlighting escalating conflict in several areas of the war-ravaged country, a return to siege tactics and popular demonstrations linked to the plummeting economy (UN News).
• Mexico. Mexican authorities rescued on Tuesday 22 foreigners, most of them Cuban and Haitian, who were earlier in the day kidnapped when gunmen stormed a hotel in the central state of San Luis Potosi, the region’s attorney general said (Reuters).
• North Korea and South Korea test fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, the latest volley in an arms race that has seen both countries develop increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts to get talks going on defusing tension prove fruitless (Reuters).
• Australia reported on Wednesday a 13% jump in cyber-crime in the past year, with about one incident in four targeting critical infrastructure and services as working from home during the pandemic made more people vulnerable to online attacks (Reuters).
• Hong Kong‘s security chief called on Wednesday for the city’s main press association to disclose to the public who its members work for and how many of them are students, a day after he accused the group of infiltrating schools to recruit students as journalists  (Reuters).
• Yemen. Violent protests have erupted in Aden and other cities in south Yemen over widespread poverty and electricity outages as a Saudi-backed alliance struggles with a complete collapse of public services in areas they control (Reuters).
• Myanmar. The army has escalated attacks on militias that oppose its rule, driving thousands of people into the hills. A shadow government has called for a nationwide uprising (NYT).

Natural Disasters

• Kenya. On 8 September the Government of Kenya declared the ongoing drought situation a national disaster, calling for relevant ministries to initiate emergency assistance including water, food distribution and livestock uptake (ERCC).
• Colombia. On 27 August, a dam overflowed in La Mojana, following atypically heavy rain during the month, resulting in homes, thousands of hectares of crops damaged as well as loss of cattle (ERCC).
• United States. Impact of tropical cyclone NICHOLAS has left more than 600,000 people are without power across Texas (490,000) and Louisiana (130,000) (ERCC).
• Indonesia. On 13-14 September, heavy rain was reported across areas of Indonesia, causing floods, flash floods, rivers overflow, and landslides (ERCC).
• India. Heavy rain and widespread floods have been affecting six Districts of Gujarat State (western India) over the past few days, resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• France. On 14 September, heavy rain and thunderstorms hit Gard Department (Occitanie Region, southern France), particularly the Nîmes City area, causing floods and resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).

Health

• Nigeria. As of week 35, Nigeria reported almost 70,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2,323 related deaths from 26 states, of which 1,168 suspected cases and 71 reported deaths in the conflict affected northeast State of Borno (ERCC).
• Nigeria‘s Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported more than 10,000 suspected measles cases during the first eight months of 2021. More than six out of 10 cases were reported from three states: Borno (5,614), Ekiti (408) and Oyo (328). Cumulatively, a total of 110 LGAs across 29 states and FCT have recorded at least one measles outbreak this year (Outbreak News Today).

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:

• Australia. A curfew imposed on more than two million people in the 12 Sydney suburbs hardest hit by the spread of the coronavirus Delta variant will end on Wednesday night (Reuters).
• China‘s COVID-19 outbreak in Fujian province, which has reported 152 local cases in five days, has prompted cities in other parts of the country to issue travel warnings ahead of major holidays, though state media warn against imposing blanket travel curbs (Reuters).
• Hong Kong. The 2022 Gay Games due to be held in Hong Kong will be postponed for a year because of the coronavirus (Reuters).
• France. Thousands of unvaccinated French health workers face suspension without pay from Wednesday under a new Covid-19 law that mandates people in care professions get immunised against the virus (Guardian).
• Italy is to make a Covid-19 “green pass” mandatory for public and private sector workers, a minister said on Wednesday, becoming the first European country to do so as it tries to accelerate vaccination rates and stamp out infections (Guardian).
• Indonesia plans to start opening its borders to foreigners in November once 70% of its target population have received at least one vaccine shot, its health minister said on Tuesday (Reuters).

Global cases and deaths. As of 15 September, Johns Hopkins University counts 225,934,549 COVID-19 cases and 4,651,777 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 14 September 225,024,781 cases and 4,636,153 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Canada. A surge in coronavirus cases has pushed the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Alberta to the verge of collapse, as healthcare workers struggle against mounting exhaustion and a growing anti-vaccine movement in the region (Guardian).
• Singapore has reported its highest one-day Covid case total in more than a year, with 837 cases recorded on Tuesday. In response to the growing outbreak, the government has paused reopening plans and reimposed some restrictions (Guardian).
• World. With nearly 4 million new cases reported globally in the past week (6-12 September), this represents the first substantial decline in weekly cases in more than two months. All regions reported declines in new cases as compared to the previous week. The number of deaths reported globally in the past week also decreased as compared to the previous week, with just over 62 000 new deaths. The African Region reported an increase in the number of weekly deaths (7%), while the South-East Asia Region reported the largest decrease (20%). The American and Eastern Mediterranean Regions reported slightly smaller decreases, 9% and 6% respectively, while the numbers of deaths reported in the European and the Western Pacific Regions were similar to last week. The cumulative number of cases reported globally is now over 224 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just over 4.6 million (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 14 September, Our World in Data reports 42.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 5.79 billion doses have been administered globally, and 31.56 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 13 September over 5.53 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• The European Union will donate a further 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries and close gaps in its own vaccination coverage, the EU executive chief said on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Africa. Less than 3.5% of Africans are vaccinated against COVID-19, far short of its official target of 60%, John Nkengasong, director of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control, said on Tuesday (Reuters). “More than 5.7 billion doses have been administered globally, but only 2% of those have been administered in Africa,” said Dr Tedros. “This doesn’t only hurt the people of Africa, it hurts all of us. The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective.” (WHO)
• Cuba on Thursday will seek World Health Organization (WHO) approval of three COVID-19 vaccines, according to the state-run corporation that produces them, even as it begins administering shots en masse to toddlers (Reuters).
• China has fully vaccinated 91% of students aged 12-17 against the coronavirus, state television reported on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Portugal has fully inoculated 80% of its population against the coronavirus, official data showed, becoming one of the world’s most vaccinated nations as authorities gradually drop most COVID-19 restrictions (Reuters).
• India is considering resuming exports of COVID-19 vaccines soon, mainly to Africa, as it has partly immunised a majority of its adults and supplies have surged (Reuters).
• Mexico said Tuesday it has successfully completed a three-month push to provide coronavirus vaccines to all adult residents of communities along its border with the United States (AP).

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.