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

• Lebanon. Demonstrators, some of them burning tires, blocked roads across parts of Lebanon on Monday in protest at the country’s economic meltdown, days after the Lebanese pound sank to new lows (Reuters).
• Niger. A French military convoy heading to Mali on Saturday ran into more trouble in a town in Niger after being delayed for more than a week by protests in Burkina Faso, with the Nigerien government reporting two deaths and 18 wounded (France 24).
• Nigeria. Nigeria has resolved to deploy more lethal weapons and deadly air strikes against bandits. This follows court’s declaration of the criminals as terrorists (Daily Nation on MSN).
• Guadeloupe. France’s government is offering to discuss some autonomy for the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which has been wracked by virus-related rioting and strikes that reflect long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland (AP).
• Mexico. A pair of gun battles in the central Mexico state of Zacatecas has left eight men dead (AP).

Natural Disasters

• Peru. An earthquake of 7.5 M occurred on 28 November at 10.52 UTC in Barranca District (northern Peru). Landslide events triggered by the earthquake have been reported close to the epicentre (ERCC).
• France, Italy. Severe weather events, including heavy rain and strong winds, have been reported across northern France and south-western Italy (ERCC).
• United Kingdom. On 26-28 November, heavy rain, snowstorm and strong winds were reported across parts of the UK, resulting in casualties (ERCC).
• Turkey. Four people, including a foreign national, were killed and 19 others hurt in Istanbul on Monday due to extreme winds across Turkey’s biggest city and its surrounding regions, the governor’s office said in a statement (Reuters).

Health

• Angola. DG ECHO field mission was conducted to Angola between 22 and 26 November. The results of SMART surveys made by UNICEF and the DG ECHO assessment on the ground confirm a significant deterioration of the nutrition situation in the southern provinces of Cunene, Huila and Benguela (ERCC).

Migration

• Mexico. Some 2,000 migrants and asylum seekers departed the southern Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border overnight on Sunday in the latest in a series of caravans setting out for the United States (Reuters).

COVID-19

Omicron

• The heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus variant is likely to spread internationally and poses a very high risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places, the World Health Organization said on Monday (Reuters).
• However, it is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g., more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta. It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta (WHO).  
• The CDC recommends people follow prevention strategies such as wearing a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high community transmission, washing your hands frequently, and physically distancing from others. CDC also recommends that everyone 5 years and older protect themselves from COVID-19 by getting fully vaccinated. CDC encourages a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for those who are eligible (CDC).

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:

• Paraguay has imposed a travel ban on foreigners from 10 African countries in a bid to prevent entry of the Omicron COVID-19 variant (Reuters).
• Some countries have already started to close down their borders to foreign travelers, such as Israel, Japan, and Morocco.  Australia has delayed re-opening their borders.  Some countries have announced bans to all travelers coming from the southern Africa region, such as the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union, and Indonesia (NYT).
• Colombia will extend its health state of emergency until Feb. 28 due to the emergence of a new coronavirus strain (Reuters).
• Singapore and Malaysia reopened one of the world’s busiest land borders on Monday, allowing vaccinated travellers to cross after nearly two years of being shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Reuters).
• Ukraine has introduced mandatory 14-day self-isolation for travellers returning from countries where the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected, the health ministry said on Monday (Reuters).
• World. Airlines are scrambling to limit the impact of the latest coronavirus variant on their networks, while delays in bookings are threatening an already-fragile recovery for global tourism (Reuters).
• India will make on-arrival COVID-19 testing mandatory for flyers from more than a dozen countries, including South Africa and Britain where the Omicron variant has been detected, the health ministry said on Monday (Reuters).

Global cases and deaths. As of 30 November, Johns Hopkins University counts 262,312,703 COVID-19 cases and 5,211,147 deaths. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 29 November 260,867,011 confirmed cases, including 5,200,267 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Europe. WHO Europe office estimates its 53-country area could record 700,000 additional deaths from the new coronavirus by next spring. WHO Europe said there are three main reasons for the rise in deaths and cases in its region. One is the continued spread of the Delta variant, or version, of the virus. Another is an easing of restrictive measures like requirements for mask-wearing and physical distancing in places. The third reason is that a high number of Europeans remain unvaccinated (VOA).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 29 November, Our World in Data reports 54.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 7.98 billion doses have been administered globally, and 31.01 million are now administered each day. Only 5.9% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 29 November over 7.77 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• South Africa‘s authorities are considering making COVID-19 shots compulsory for certain places and activities, as a rise in infections linked to a new variant threatens to become a fourth wave (Reuters).
• The Philippines launched on Monday an ambitious drive to vaccinate nine million people against COVID-19 in three days, deploying security forces and thousands of volunteers in a programme made urgent by the threats of the Omicron variant (Reuters).
• BioNTech has started developing a new COVID-19 vaccine that aims to combat the Omicron variant. Moderna expects to have a new version of its shot available by early 2022.  Both expect to know whether their current vaccines have sufficient protection in the next two weeks (Business Insider).
• India‘s vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said on Monday it has resumed export of its COVID-19 shot, Covaxin, and has executed long-pending orders in November (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.