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

• Sudan. The Sudanese army was facing widening opposition on Thursday to this week’s coup, with state officials in Khartoum vowing disobedience and activists mobilising mass demonstrations planned for the weekend (Reuters).

Natural Disasters

• Indonesia. Heavy rain and strong winds have affected several parts of Indonesia over the past few days, causing floods, triggering landslides and resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• Cambodia. Heavy rain has been affecting central-southern Cambodia (particularly the area of the capital Phnom Penh) since 25 October, causing river overflow (in particular the Prek Tnaot River) and triggering floods that have resulted in damage and displacement (ERCC).
• Malaysia. Heavy rain hit the Districts of Baling and Pendang (Kedah State, northern Peninsular Malaysia) over the past few days, causing floods (ERCC).
• Canary Islands. A new rupture of the main cone has been reported on 27 October and the lava has been flowing westwards over the coast. Following the possibility that the northern lava flow could reach the sea, the Maritime Captaincy established a perimeter of exclusion from Puerto Naos to Tazacorte and 0.5 nautical mile off the coast (ERCC).

Health

• Congo (DRC). The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Butsili Health Area, Beni Health Zone continues with one new confirmed case reported in the past week. The case is a 24 years-old male from Butsili Health Area and a known contact under follow-up. As of 23 October 2021, a total of six confirmed cases of EVD have been reported in Beni HZ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with three deaths (case fatality ratio 50.0%), including two community deaths (Outbreak News).

Migration

• Guatemala, Mexico. About 2,000 migrants had walked out of the southern city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border on Saturday. While the multitude is challenging to count, it appeared significantly larger when it left Huixtla after a day of rest and its leaders estimated its size at 4,000. It reached the town of Villa Comaltitlan on Wednesday (AP).

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:

• Russia. Moscow has entered a partial lockdown, in which only essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets are allowed to remain open and schools and state kindergartens are shut, and comes ahead of a week-long nationwide workplace shutdown from Oct. 30 (Reuters).
• New Zealand said on Thursday it would ease coronavirus border restrictions that have been in place since March 2020, and move to a system of home isolation for fully vaccinated overseas arrivals from early next year (Reuters).
• Australia on Thursday eased its COVID-related travel advice for several countries including the United States, Britain and Canada as it prepares to reopen its borders next week for the first time in over 18 months (Reuters).
• United States. The United States administration on Monday, October 25, revealed further details regarding the removal of the entry ban on vaccinated travellers from 33 world countries, including here the 26 Schengen Area countries, Ireland and the United Kingdom, on November 8 (SchengenVisaInfo).
• Morocco. Demonstrators took to the streets in cities around Morocco to protest the country’s decision to require COVID-19 vaccination passes to be allowed to work and access public venues (News Press Now)

Global cases and deaths. As of 28 October, Johns Hopkins University counts 245,211,949 COVID-19 cases and 4,976,086 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 27 October 244,385,444 cases and 4,961,489 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Americas. COVID-19 is slowly retreating across most of North, Central and South America, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, reporting that last week the continent’s death and infection figures were the lowest in over a year (Reuters).
• Germany‘s coronavirus caseload took its biggest jump in two weeks on Thursday, with over 28,000 new infections, the Robert Koch Institute said, adding heft to worries about restrictions this winter (Reuters).
• Poland reported 8,361 daily COVID-19 cases and 133 deaths on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with the number of new cases reaching the highest level since late April (Reuters).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 26 October, Our World in Data reports 49% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 6.94 billion doses have been administered globally, and 23.67 million are now administered each day. Only 3.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 25 October over 6.69 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Africa. Only five African countries will meet the target of fully vaccinating 40% of their populations against COVID-19 unless the pace of inoculations accelerates across the continent, World Health Organization said on Thursday (Reuters).
• China. Beijing city is demanding a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for some key workers, making it the first key Chinese metropolis to publicly articulate a booster mandate, as the country combats a fresh outbreak caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant (Reuters).

Other COVID-19 impacts

• Variants. It appears that AY.4.2. could be slightly more transmissible than the Delta variant — a marginal difference that experts say is more of a headache than a devastating gamechanger in the scope of the pandemic. AY.4.2 has caused some alarm because its prevalence is building up in the United Kingdom, where it’s even gained ground on the remarkably transmissible Delta variant. Scientists are still trying to determine what, if any, competitive advantage the newer form of the virus has over Delta, and there are a number of possible explanations for AY.4.2’s increasing frequency (STAT).

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.