World Status Report

This report intends to give the UTD Community a snapshot of international risks, and other issues as reported by the linked 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

• Niger. The local population living in bordering areas with Mali continue to face attacks by non-State armed groups. One of the deadliest recent attacks, on 28 July, killed 19 farmers (ERCC).
• Mozambique. South Africa approves use of 1,495 military personnel to help Mozambique fight insurgents (Reuters).
• Mexico. Mexican villagers sympathizing with a new indigenous self-defense group torched government offices, businesses and houses in a remote mountainous region in southern Chiapas state this week, protesting rampant insecurity in the area (Reuters).
• World.  The Global Peace Index (GPI) report for 2021 saw a significant increase in civil unrest and political instability during 2020. The report found the main reason to be rising uncertainty and unease caused by lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions and worsening tensions from economic instability (GPI).

Natural Disasters

• Bangladesh. Incessant rains since 27 July have resulted in continued flooding across the Rohingya refugee camps and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, resulting in casualties, displacement and damage (ERCC).
• Myanmar. The number of casualties following flooding in Kayin, Mon, and the Rakhine States is increasing (ERCC).
• Pakistan. Heavy rainfall across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Region (north-western Pakistan), led to floods, flash floods and a number of related incidents, resulting in casualties, displacement, and damage (ERCC).
• Turkey. A forest fire broke out in Manavgat District (Antalya Province, southern Turkey) on the night of 28 July burning approximately 1,500 hectares resulting in damage and displacement (ERCC).
• Thailand. Heavy rainfall has been affecting several districts of Tak Province (north-west Thailand) since 27 July.  Over 1000 people have been affected (ERCC).
• Philippines. Widespread floods caused by Southwest Monsoon rains continue to affect The Philippines, resulting in casualties, displacement, and damage (ERCC).
• India. Flash floods in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and cloud bursts in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have killed at least 16 people, with 21 missing and 17 injured (ERCC).
• Lebanon is struggling for the second day to contain wildfires in the country’s north that have spread across the border into Syria, civil defense officials in both countries said Thursday (AP).
• Europe. WBAL Weather experts in Greece say a heat wave across southeast Europe is likely to be among the most severe recorded since the mid-1980s (WBAL)

Health

• Colombia. More than 10,000 migrants from Haiti, Cuba and several African countries, are overwhelming a town on Colombia’s north coast, officials say, creating a public health emergency in the midst of the pandemic (WaPo)

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.

As notable cases:

• India’s southern state of Kerala has announced a two-day lockdown as federal authorities planned to send experts to help stem the spread of infections in the country’s leading Covid-19 hotspot (Guardian).
• Japan is reportedly considering putting Osaka and three prefectures around Tokyo under a state of emergency. It comes after a surge of infections nationwide (Guardian).
• Cambodia is set to launch a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand from midnight on Thursday, in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant (Guardian).
• Pakistan will require all public sector workers to get vaccinated by Aug. 31, and from August 1 only vaccinated people will be able to board flights, enter government offices, schools, restaurants and shopping malls (Reuters).
• Oman on Thursday extended a nightly lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, with movement and commercial activities to be restricted between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. until further notice (Reuters)

Global cases and deaths. As of 29 July, Johns Hopkins University counts 196,095,694 COVID-19 cases and 4,189,011 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 28 July 195,266,156 cases and 4,180,161 deaths.

As notable cases:

• China has reported small coronavirus outbreaks driven by the Delta variant in three provinces as a cluster linked to an eastern airport spreads despite mass testing and a vaccination drive (Guardian).
• Indonesia’s regional Covid-19 deaths vastly outnumber its national tally, an independent organisation which collects data on the southeast Asian country’s coronavirus outbreak has said (Guardian).
• Russia has reported a record 799 coronavirus deaths for the third time in the last month as cases surge in the country. The coronavirus task force also reported 23,270 new daily cases, including 3,356 in Moscow (Guardian).
• Thailand reports an all-time high in coronavirus cases and deaths today with 17,669 new infections reported and a daily death toll of 165 (Guardian).
• Japan. Daily coronavirus cases Japan have exceeded 10,000 for the first time, after Tokyo reported a record high 3,865 new infection cases today (Guardian).
• Australia. Sydney reported a record one-day rise in coronavirus cases on Thursday and warned the number of infections would rise as the military was brought in to enforce the city’s lockdown (Guardian).
• Senegal. since the beginning of July, infections have soared, with more than 15,000 cases and 139 deaths in this month alone (Guardian). Senegalese hospitals are overwhelmed by third COVID wave (Reuters).
• The Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned that COVID-19 continues to hit the Americas hard. Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador and Paraguay are all among the countries with the world’s highest weekly death rates (Reuters).
• World. The global number of new cases reported last week (19-25 July 2021) was over 3.8 million, an 8% increase as compared to the previous week. An average of around 540 000 cases were reported each day over the past week as compared to 490 000 cases reported daily the week before. This increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Region of the Americas and the Western Pacific Region. The number of deaths reported this week increased sharply with over 69 000 deaths, a 21% increase when compared to the previous week. The cumulative number of cases and deaths reported globally is almost 194 million and over 4 million respectively. If these trends continue, it is expected that the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next two weeks (WHO).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 28 July, Our World in Data reports 27.8% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 14.2% is fully vaccinated. 4.01 billion doses have been administered globally, and 35.6 million are now administered each day. Only 1.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. The WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports over 3.82 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• Africa. A “substantial chunk” of 9m Covid jab doses to be donated by the UK to developing states in the coming weeks expire at the end of September, “setting up African countries to fail” (Guardian).
• World. Global injections have slowed slightly, with the fourth billion reached in 30 days, while it took only 26 days to reach the previous one. The first and second billion were reached after about 140 and 40 days respectively (Guardian).
• Burundi has said it will accept Covid-19 vaccines – but that it will not take responsibility for any side effects – becoming one of the last countries in the world to do so (Guardian).
• Italy approves the use of Moderna’s (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine for children 12-17 years old, making it the second shot endorsed for adolescents, alongside that of Pfizer (Reuters).
• Israel will begin offering a third shot of the Pfizer (PFE.N)/Biontech COVID-19 vaccine to people over 60 (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.