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

• Congo (DRC). Violence and access constraints in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to hamper humanitarian operations in a context where one in three people need assistance, the senior UN official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday (UN News).
• Haiti. Conditions on the ground are dire for the thousands of Haitian migrants being forced to return to their homeland from the Americas, many of them “empty handed”, and bewildered (UN News).
• Central African Republic. At least 12 people were killed in Central African Republic on Tuesday when rebel fighters ambushed and set fire to three semi-trucks ferrying passengers from a regional capital, a local official said (Reuters).
• Australia‘s media are reporting that a woman who tested positive for Covid had her car torched in a suspected vigilante attack after her infection resulted in restrictions being reimposed in parts of south Australia (Guardian).

Natural Disasters

• Pakistan. Heavy rain caused flash floods and landslides on 3-4 October in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (northern Pakistan), resulting in casualties (ERCC).
• Thailand. Since mid-September, floods related to heavy rain have been affecting northern and central Thailand, leading to casualties (ERCC). Several temples in Thailand’s historic city of Ayutthaya were underwater on Wednesday, as heavy monsoon rains flooded provinces across the country (Reuters).
• Mexico. Floods caused by heavy rain continue to affect Querétaro State (central Mexico), resulting in an increased human impact (ERCC).
• Italy. Heavy rain with thunderstorms and strong winds have affected the Sicily Region (southern Italy), causing floods and resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• World. Improved water management, monitoring and forecasting are needed in the face of a looming global water crisis, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and partners said in a report published on Tuesday (UN News).
• Greece.  In a scorched landscape on the Greek island of Evia, crews of workers chop burnt pine trees, all that’s left from devastating summer wildfires, to set up wooden flood barriers (Reuters).

Health

• Afghanistan. An estimated 3.2 million Afghan children under five, are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year, UN agencies warned on Tuesday, adding that without immediate treatment, at least a million are at risk of dying (UN News).

Of note

• South East Asia. Fresh coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia have hurt factory activity across industries, threatening the region’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and disrupting global supplies of goods such as apparels, automobiles, and electronics (Reuters).

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. The University Vaccine Requirement Checker notes universities that require a COVID-19 Vaccine.

As notable cases:

• Vietnam is planning from December to reopen key tourist destinations to vaccinated visitors from countries deemed a low COVID-19 risk, the government said on Wednesday, ahead of a full resumption targeted for June next year (Reuters).
• United States. Los Angeles is poised to enact one of the US’s strictest vaccine mandates, which will require residents to be vaccinated in order to enter a variety of indoor public spaces including bars, restaurants, nail salons and gyms (Guardian).

Global cases and deaths. As of 06 October, Johns Hopkins University counts 235,947,679 COVID-19 cases and 4,819,788 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 05 October 235,175,106 cases and 4,806,841 deaths.

As notable cases:

• United Kingdom. School absences in England related to COVID-19 jumped by two-thirds in the last two weeks of September, according to government data (Reuters).
• Russia‘s covid cases are high for another day, which is linked by experts to the Delta variant and low vaccination rate. Less than 30% of the adult population are vaccinated (Guardian).
• Poland’s daily Covid-19 cases have risen by about 70% in the past week to more than 2,000 (Guardian).
• The Czech Republic reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases in one day for first the time since 18 May (Guardian).
• World. The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has continued to decline globally, with  3.1 million new cases and just over 54,000 new deaths, reported over the last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) (UN News).  Globally, the number of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to decline. This is a trend that has been observed since August. Over 3.1 million new cases and just over 54 000 new deaths were reported during the week of 27 September to 3 October 2021. Cases this week decreased by 9% as compared to the previous week, while deaths remained similar. All regions reported a decline in the number of new cases this week apart from the European Region which remained similar to the week before. The largest decrease in new weekly cases was reported from the African Region (43%), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean Region (21%), the South-East Asia Region (19%), the Region of the Americas (12%) and the Western Pacific (12%). The cumulative number of confirmed cases reported globally is now over 234 million and the cumulative number of deaths is just under 4.8 million. (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 05 October, Our World in Data reports 46% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 6.39 billion doses have been administered globally, and 23.6 million are now administered each day. Only 2.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 03 October over 6.18 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• The United Arab Emirates has authorised the Russia-developed one-shot Sputnik Light as both a standalone COVID-19 vaccine and a booster shot, Russia’s sovereign fund RDIF said on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Kazakhstan has signed a deal to buy about 4m doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, the healthcare minister Alexei Tsoi said on Wednesday (Guardian).
• South Korea will begin taking reservations for coronavirus vaccines from pregnant women this week as the country accelerates its inoculation drive to reach its goal for immunising 80% of all adults by the end of the month (Guardian).
• Australians with compromised immune systems could start receiving Covid-19 booster shots this year before third jabs are rolled out more widely in 2022, AAP reports (Guardian).
• Norway will soon offer a third dose of Covid vaccines to people aged 65 and older, the health minister Bent Høie said on Tuesday (Guardian).
• Spain has approved administering of third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are based on the same mRNA technology, for people aged 70 or over, the health ministry said (Guardian).
• Africa. Though the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in Africa is well behind the rest of the world due to persistent supply inequity, the region is making modest progress, with some countries reaching the goal of immunizing 10% of their population by the end of September, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said today in its latest outbreaks and health emergencies update (CIDRAP).

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.