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, Syria. Global casualties from anti-personnel landmines were “exceptionally high” last year, with Syrians and Afghans worst-hit, a UN-backed civil society report said on Wednesday. According to Landmine Monitor 2021, the number of victims rose by 20 per cent in 2020 compared with the previous 12 months, the result of “increased armed conflict and contamination” of land with improvised mines. (UN News).
• Ghana‘s parliament on Thursday will hold its first public hearing on a new law that would make it illegal to be gay or to advocate for gay rights, its press office said (Reuters).
• Mali may ask Russia for “help” given its current security situation, Mali’s foreign minister said on Thursday during a trip to Moscow (Reuters).
• Cameroon. An explosive device wounded at least 11 university students on Wednesday when it was thrown on to the roof of a lecture hall in a part of western Cameroon where English-speaking separatists are at war with government forces, a university official said (Reuters).
• Baltic states. Countries bordering Belarus expressed concern on Thursday that a crisis over growing numbers of migrants trying to break through its frontiers into the European Union could escalate into a military confrontation (Reuters).
• Haiti. The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince sent a security alert message, urging U.S. citizens in Haiti “to strongly consider returning to the United States” amid a gang-aggravated fuel shortage and a deteriorating security climate in which 17 Christian missionaries, including 16 Americans, have been held hostage more than three weeks. Americans in the country are being encouraged to depart while commercial flights are still available, noting that while the security situation has been unpredictable for months, the environment has deteriorated rapidly in recent days (Miami Herald).

Natural Disasters

• Sri Lanka, India. Heavy rain continues to affect south-eastern India and Sri Lanka, resulting in floods and landslides, and leading to an increased human impact (ERCC).
• Colombia. Heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorm have been affecting most of Colombia (in particular central and western Departments) since the beginning of the rainy season (mid-September), triggering landslides, causing floods, flash floods and a number of severe weather-related incidents that have resulted in casualties and widespread damage (ERCC).
• Indonesia. Heavy rain and strong wind have been affecting parts of Indonesia, in particular central and northern Sumatra, eastern Java and southern Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo) since 8 November, causing rivers overflow and floods that have resulted in population displacements and damage (ERCC).

Health

• United States. A study shows that deer can catch coronavirus from people and give it to other deer in overwhelming numbers, the first evidence of animals transmitting the virus in the wild. Similar spillover and transmission could be occurring in certain animal populations around the world, with troubling implications for eradicating the virus and potentially even for the emergence of new variants (Guardian).
• World. The risk of measles outbreaks is high after more than 22 million infants missed their first vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known, more so than COVID-19, Ebola, tuberculosis or flu. It can be especially dangerous for babies and young children, with pneumonia among the possible complications (Reuters).

Migration

• France, UK. More than 500 people crossed from France to the UK in 16 small boats on Tuesday, the Home Office has confirmed. French authorities also prevented 307 people in eight boats from making the crossing. So far this year 21,649 migrants have crossed the English Channel, compared to 8,404 people in the whole of 2020 (BBC).

Of note

• South Korea started rationing urea solution, used to cut diesel car and industrial emissions, and banned its resale as panic buying by drivers exacerbated an acute shortage that could bring transport and industry to a grinding halt (Reuters).
• Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and senior aides holed up in a war bunker on Thursday during an exercise simulating an outbreak of a lethal new COVID-19 variant.  He described the day-long “Omega Drill”, named after a fictitious virus strain, as a precaution to ensure Israel was prepared for “any scenario”(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:

• Netherlands. A pandemic advisory panel in the Netherlands on Thursday recommended imposing western Europe’s first partial lockdown since the summer, putting pressure on the government to take unpopular action to fight a Covid surge (Guardian).
• China. The Chinese port city of Dalian has ordered all businesses handling imported chilled and frozen foods to suspend operations after a Covid outbreak that began last week (Guardian). Authorities in Beijing city imposed new curbs on conferences and events after confirming on Thursday six locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including individuals who had attended conferences in person in the city (Reuters).
• Malaysia will reopen its borders to international visitors by Jan. 1 at the latest, a government advisory council said on Thursday (Reuters).
• Denmark will impose self-isolation requirements on travellers from Singapore, its embassy in the city-state said on Thursday, following a surge in COVID-19 infections (Reuters).

Global cases and deaths. As of 10 November, Johns Hopkins University counts 251,054,359 COVID-19 cases and 5,068,233 deaths. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 10 November 250,715,502 confirmed cases, including 5,062,106 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Romania, Bulgaria. Romania and Bulgaria are recording the EU’s highest daily death rates from Covid-19, after superstition, misinformation and entrenched mistrust in governments and institutions combined to leave them the least vaccinated countries in the bloc (Guardian).
• Africa. Death rates from Covid infections are much higher in patients with diabetes on the African continent, where the number of people with diabetes is growing rapidly, the World Health Organization said on Thursday (Guardian).
• Canada’s coronavirus epicentres are shifting from dense urban zones to more rural or remote areas that have lower vaccination rates and fewer public health resources, Reuters reports (Guardian).
• Italy. The chief of an intensive care unit in the northern Italian city of Trieste said hospitals are experiencing a “return to the dark days of the pandemic” amid a rise in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations (Guardian).
• France is at the beginning of a fifth wave of the coronavirus epidemic, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday (Reuters).
• Germany reported a record 50,196 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, the fourth day in a row it has posted a fresh daily high, as a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections sweeps the country (Reuters).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 10 November, Our World in Data reports 51.3% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 7.36 billion doses have been administered globally, and 27.83 million are now administered each day. Only 4.4% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 08 November over 7.084 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Ukraine. Ukraine’s health ministry has proposed expanding the list of occupations for which Covid vaccinations will be compulsory to cover medical personnel and municipal employees, it said on Thursday (Guardian).

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.