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

• Yemen. The world’s worst humanitarian crisis continues to deteriorate with unprecedented levels of needs. In Yemen, 20.7 million people are in need of assistance (66% of the population), including over 16.1 million food insecure people, and there are 4 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) (ERCC).
• Myanmar. Most of the population of a Myanmar town near the Indian border have fled after buildings were set ablaze by artillery amid fighting between militia forces opposed to military rule and the army, according to residents and media reports (Reuters).
• Australia. Police in Australia’s second largest city of Melbourne arrested more than 200 people after projectiles thrown by protesters injured two officers on Wednesday, the third consecutive day of demonstrations against COVID-19 curbs (Reuters). A no-fly zone has been declared over Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, amid a third day of anti-lockdown protests. Police asked the aviation authority to declare the no-fly zone for operational and safety reasons (Guardian).

Natural Disasters

• Uganda. Since 17 September, heavy rain has been affecting the Eastern Uganda Region, triggering landslides. Up to 1,228 people have been affected and water, hygiene, sanitation facilities have been destroyed, increasing the risk of diarrhoeal diseases  (ERCC).
• Australia. An earthquake of 5.9 M at a depth of 10 km occurred on 21 September at 23.15 UTC (9.15 local time) in south-east Victoria State (southeastern Australia). There are no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths, while a number of buildings have been damaged and power outages occurred across some districts of Melbourne, as reported by media (ERCC).
• Indonesia. On 20-21 September heavy rain caused in river overflow, floods and landslides across East Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and West Java Provinces, resulting in displacement and damage (ERCC).
• Colombia. From 1 until 20 September, several severe-weather events, including heavy rain and strong winds caused floods, flash floods and landslide events across 70 municipalities of 19 Departments in Colombia, resulting in displacement and damage  (ERCC).
• Canary Islands. The lava flow emitted by Cumbre La Vieja volcano continues slowing down in westward direction and the speed has been reduced from 700 to 10 m/h. The number of evacuated people stands at 6,800 and around 200 houses have been affected as well as 200 infrastructures and 400 tourists have been relocated in Tenerife island. The alert level of the volcano stands at Red, the highest level (ERCC).

Health

• Congo (DRC). As of 18 September 2021, a total of 608 suspected including 12 confirmed cases of meningitis, and 161 deaths (case fatality ratio of 26%), have been reported in the Banalia health zone. Among these cases, 68% (416/608) are aged 15 years or older. Additionally, 16  out of the 20 health areas of the Banalia health zone have notified at least one suspected case of meningitis (WHO).

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:

• China‘s northeastern city of Harbin, population 10 million, went into semi-shutdown after reporting new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases for the first time since early February (Reuters).
• Argentina on Tuesday unveiled plans to ease coronavirus pandemic restrictions, including loosening strict border controls, allowing more commercial activities and getting rid of the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors (Reuters).
• France has no plans at this stage to relax its health pass restrictions set up to deal with a fourth wave of Covid infections (Guardian).
• Australia’s tourism minister said the country is on track to reopen its borders “by Christmas at the latest” (Guardian).
• The UK has said it is working as “quickly as possible” to remove the requirement for PCR testing for international travellers (Guardian).

Global cases and deaths. As of 22 September, Johns Hopkins University counts 229,708,118 COVID-19 cases and 4,712,053 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 21 September 228,807,631 cases and 4,697,099 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Slovakia reported 1,180 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest daily tally since April as the country of 5.5 million experiences a surge in infections (Reuters).
• United Kingdom. England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty on Wednesday said that children were currently driving transmission of COVID-19 at the moment, and that without vaccination, almost all 12- to 15-year-olds would get infected at some point (Reuters). The United Kingdom records 166 new Covid deaths and 34,460 new infections on Wednesday (Guardian).
• Singapore has reported 1,457 new Covid cases today, the highest since April last year (Guardian).
• World. The numbers of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths globally continued to decline this week, with over 3.6 million cases and just under 60 000 deaths reported between 13-19 September. This brings the cumulative numbers of confirmed cases and deaths globally to nearly 228 million and over 4.6 million respectively. While the Region of the Americas as well as the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions reported a decrease in weekly case incidence, the African and European regions reported a similar number of deaths as compared to the previous week. Similarly, COVID-19 weekly mortality decreased in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asian regions over the past week, with the South-East Asia Region reporting the largest percentage decrease (27%). In contrast, the Western Pacific Region reported an increase (7%) in the number of deaths while the Region of the Americas and the European Region reported a similar number of deaths as compared to the previous week (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 21 September, Our World in Data reports 43.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 6 billion doses have been administered globally, and 28.48 million are now administered each day. Only 2% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 20 September over 5.77 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Panama will offer a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to moderate and severely immunocompromised people starting this week (Reuters).
• Argentina and Brazil. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has selected two biomedical centers in Argentina and Brazil as regional hubs to develop and produce mRNA-based vaccines to fight COVID-19 in Latin America, the regional health agency said on Tuesday (Reuters).
• South Korea said on Wednesday it would donate more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam next month (Reuters).
• Lithuania will donate 235,900 additional doses of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan (Reuters).
• Ukraine is planning compulsory coronavirus vaccinations for some jobs including teachers and employees of state institutions and local governments (Reuters).
• Germany will stop paying compensation to unvaccinated workers who are forced into quarantine by coronavirus measures (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.