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

• Ethiopia. Amir Aman Kiyaro was detained under the country’s new war-related state of emergency powers on November 28 after returning home from a reporting trip (AP in VOA).

Natural Disasters

• Republic of the Congo. Heavy rain has been affecting most of the Republic of the Congo (also named Congo-Brazzaville) since September, causing rivers overflow and triggering floods that have resulted in casualties and widespread damage (ERCC).
• Philippines.  Tropical cyclone wind signals from 1 (strong winds) to 4 (very destructive typhoon-force winds) have been issued for most areas in Visayas, Mindanao and Luzon. On 16-17 December, heavy to very heavy rain, strong winds and storm surge are forecast over the southern, central and western Philippines (ERCC). Typhoon Rai rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm before making landfall in the southern Philippines on Thursday, forcing mass evacuations and flight cancellations as floodwaters reached chest-high in low-lying communities (Reuters).
• South Africa. Heavy rain and thunderstorms have affected Eastern Cape Province (south-eastern South Africa) over the past few days, resulting in casualties and damage (ERCC).
• Indonesia. Heavy rain and strong winds have been hitting parts of Indonesia over the past few days, causing floods, triggering landslides and leading to casualties and damage (ERCC).
• South Sudan. Heavy rain has been affecting northern and central South Sudan since the beginning of the rainy season (early May), causing rivers overflow and floods, that have resulted in casualties and damage (ERCC).

Health

• Congo (DRC). The Minister of Health declared the end of the 13th outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ERCC).

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:

• South Africa‘s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) has retained its lockdown at ‘adjusted level 1’, or the lowest of a five-tier system of restrictions, in the battle on the Omicron variant, health authorities said on Thursday (Reuters).
• South Korea said on Thursday it will reinstate stricter social distancing rules a month-and-a-half after easing them under a ‘living with COVID-19’ policy, as the number of new infections and serious cases spirals (Reuters).
• Malaysia on Thursday announced new COVID-19 restrictions, including banning mass gatherings and requiring booster doses for high-risk groups, as it reported its second case of the Omicron coronavirus variant (Reuters).
• New Zealand. Thousands marched in New Zealand’s capital Wellington on Thursday to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, as the country reached the 90% fully vaccinated milestone (Reuters).
• Sweden will require visitors from other Nordic nations to have a vaccine pass to cross the border as it gradually tightens restrictions in the face ofrising number of COVID-19 infections and worries about the Omicron variant, the government said on Thursday (Reuters).
• France announced on Thursday that because of surging COVID-19 cases in Britain only designated categories of people would be allowed to travel between the two countries, and anyone arriving from Britain would have to self-isolate (Reuters).
• Portugal will extend border control beyond their planned end on 9 January to limit spread of the Omicron variant, the prime minister, António Costa, told reporters on Thursday (Guardian). The Portuguese authorities have fined tens of airlines and hundreds of travellers who have failed to meet the country’s new COVID-19 testing rules upon their arrival (SchengenVisaInfo).

Global cases and deaths. As of 16 December, Johns Hopkins University counts 272,361,033 COVID-19 cases and 5,332,972 deaths. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 15 December 270,791,973 confirmed cases, including 5,318,216 deaths.

As notable cases:

• South Africa reported 26,976 new cases on Wednesday, a record number of new daily COVID-19 infections in a fourth wave believed to be largely caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant (Reuters).
• United Kingdom. Britain will most likely only have reliable data on the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in early January and possibly in the week between Christmas and New Year, a leading health official said on Thursday (Reuters).
• Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday “new measures will be needed” to break “very high” infections after the country breaks its daily Covid case record for the fourth time in a row (Guardian).
• Ukraine recorded 9,590 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, a 46% drop from 17,873 cases three weeks ago (Guardian)
• United States. Top federal health officials warned in a briefing Tuesday morning that the omicron variant is rapidly spreading in the United States and could peak in a massive wave of infections as soon as January, according to new modeling analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The prevalence of omicron jumped sevenfold in a single week, according to the CDC, and at such a pace, the highly mutated variant of the coronavirus could ratchet up pressure on a health system already strained in many places as the delta variant continues its own surge (WaPo).
• Europe. The overall epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA is still characterised by a high case notification rate and a low, but slowly increasing death rate, driven by the ongoing transmission of the Delta VOC. The Delta VOC remains currently the most prevalent variant. However, based on modelling predictions, and depending on the growth advantage and level of immune escape, the Omicron VOC is likely to become the dominant variant in the EU/EEA within the first two months of 2022. Data are currently too limited to assess the severity of disease caused by the Omicron VOC in the EU/EEA population with sufficient confidence. However, even if the severity of disease caused by the Omicron VOC is equal to or lower than the severity of the Delta VOC, the increased transmissibility and resulting exponential growth of cases will rapidly outweigh any benefits of a potentially reduced severity. It is therefore considered very likely that the Omicron VOC will cause additional hospitalisations and fatalities, in addition to those already expected in previous forecasts that only take into account the Delta VOC (ECDC).
• World. Globally, the weekly incidence of both cases and deaths has declined during the past week (6-12 December 2021), with decreases of 5% and 10% respectively, as compared to the previous week. Nonetheless, this still corresponded to over 4 million new confirmed cases and just under 47 000 new deaths and the African Region reported a 111% increase in new cases last week. As of 12 December, nearly 269 million confirmed cases and nearly 5.3 million deaths have been reported globally (WHO).
• World. Since  the  last  update  published  on  7  December,  additional  countries  across  all  six  WHO  Regions  have  reported confirmed  cases  of  the  Omicron  variant.  As  of  14  December  2021  (2  pm  CET),  the  Omicron  variant  has  been confirmed in 76 countries. The  data  on  the  clinical  severity  of  Omicron  remains  limited.  More  information  on  case  severity  associated  with Omicron is expected in the coming weeks due to the time lag between an increase in the incidence of cases and an increase in the incidence of severe cases, and deaths (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 15 December, Our World in Data reports 56.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 8.59 billion doses have been administered globally, and 36.4 million are now administered each day. Only 7.5% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 13 December over 8.2 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Germany’s new health minister, Karl Lauterbach, has warned the country is lacking the millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine considered necessary to keep the population’s defences up over the winter, especially with the predicted rise of the new variant (Guardian).
• Israel will donate one million COVID-19 vaccines to African nations in the coming weeks in an effort to strengthen ties with the continent (AP, Times of Israel).
• Pfizer results came in this week from a Phase 2/3 trial of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment, and the data showed a drug capable of cutting risks of hospitalization or death by 89 percent among high-risk adults, when given within a few days of their first symptoms (Homeland Preparedness News).

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.