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

• Afghanistan. Fighting intensified and is ongoing in/around several provincial capitals. Before the weekend, the Taliban took control of the first provincial capital Zaranj, in Nimroz province. Since then, four other provincial capitals have been overrun (ERCC). With the war in Afghanistan now in “a new, deadlier, and more destructive phase”, the top UN official in the country appealed on Friday for the Security Council to act to avert a catastrophe (UN News).
• Iran. Several hundred Afghans flew to Iran from 5 August, escaping fighting around Zaranj in the Afghan province of Nimroz (ERCC).
• Somalia. During 2020, at least 419 civilians, primarily girls, were raped or violated by parties to the conflict in Somalia. This represents an increase of almost 80% compared to 2019 (ERCC).
• Israel-Lebanon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said on Friday that escalating hostilities over the past days involving Lebanese and Israeli forces have created “a very dangerous situation” in the volatile border region (UN News).
• Mali. Rapidly spreading violence in Mali is threatening the State’s very survival, the UN independent expert on the human rights situation in the country said on Friday (UN News).
• Syria. The top UN rights official once more sounded the alarm on Thursday over the plight of civilians in Syria, as intense fighting and indiscriminate shelling by Government forces and armed opposition groups paralyze neighbourhoods in and around the southern city of Daraa (UN News).

Natural Disasters

• China. Heavy rainfall has been affecting central-southern China (particularly Sichuan Province) since 6 August, causing floods that have resulted in evacuation of residents and widespread damage (ERCC).
• Japan. According to media reports, due to tropical storm LUPIT, evacuation orders have been issued for more than 290,000 residents across Hiroshima, Shimane, Ehime, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima prefectures. Dozens of flights have been cancelled (ERCC).
• Taiwan. According to media reports, due to tropical storm LUPIT, there have been widespread floods and landslides and reports of a collapsed bridge (ERCC).
• United States. More than 181,000 hectares have been burning in Plumas County (north-western California), resulting in an increasing number of casualties, displacement, and damage (ERCC).
• Greece. Wildfires continue to affect most parts of Evia Island (central-eastern Greece), while the situation in Attica is improving according to the Greek Civil Protection authorities (ERCC).
• Italy. Several forest fires broke out in central and southern Italy mainland as well as across Sicily and Sardinia Islands in recent days, causing casualties and widespread damage (ERCC).
• World. Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries, the report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned. Deadly heat waves, gargantuan hurricanes and other weather extremes that are already happening will only become more severe (Reuters).

Health

• West Nile virus. Between 30 July and 5 August 2021, European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries reported 6 human cases of West Nile virus (WNV) infection and no deaths related to WNV infections. Cases were reported by Greece (5) and Italy (1) (ECDC).
• Nigeria. At least 2.3 million children and youth are going hungry in northeast Nigeria where an Islamist insurgency has forced farmers to flee their fields and put the region on the brink of critical food shortages, humanitarian groups have warned (Reuters).
• World. The economic catastrophe set off by Covid-19, now deep into its second year, has battered millions of people who had already been living hand-to-mouth. Now, far more have been pushed over the edge. An estimated 270 million people are expected to face potentially life-threatening food shortages this year — compared to 150 million before the pandemic — according to analysis from the World Food Program, the anti-hunger agency of the United Nations. The World Food Program sounded the alarm further last week, warning that “conflict, the economic repercussions of Covid-19 and the climate crisis are expected to drive higher levels of acute food insecurity in 23 hunger hotspots over the next four months,” mostly in Africa but also Central America, Afghanistan and North Korea (NYT).

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:

• Argentina will relax coronavirus restrictions as infection and mortality rates falls, the government announced on Friday, even as the South American nation approached 5 million cases with more than 107,000 deaths (Reuters).
• New Zealand. Under pressure from businesses and public sectors facing a worker shortage that policymakers fear will fuel inflation, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to unveil plans this week to reopen the country’s borders (Reuters).
• Australia expanded a COVID-19 lockdown to a rural town and the coastal region of Byron Bay on Monday, as fears grew that the virus has spread from Sydney to the northern tip of the country’s most populous state (Reuters).
• Saudi Arabia will gradually begin receiving Umrah pilgrimage requests from abroad for vaccinated pilgrims starting Aug. 9 after about a year and a half of not receiving overseas worshippers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state news agency (SPA) reported early on Sunday (Reuters).
• Italy. Fake versions of anti-Covid “green passes” have begun to circulate in Italy just days after they were introduced, police have said (Guardian).
• Canada lifts its ban on Americans entering, though under a strict regime they must be both fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19 within three days (Guardian).
• France has extended its “health pass” covering activities including going to restaurants and cafes, taking long-distance train journeys and visiting hospitals has come into effect after a fourth weekend of protests (Guardian).

Global cases and deaths. As of 09 August, Johns Hopkins University counts 202,892,211 COVID-19 cases and 4,297,888 deaths, and the WHO COVID-19 dashboard reports as of 09 August 202,296,216 cases and 4,288,134 deaths.

As notable cases:

• Brazil had 43,033 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 990 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Saturday (Reuters).
• Philippines. Nearly a fifth of hospitals are close to full capacity as a surge in COVID-19 infections, driven by the Delta variant, spreads across the country, the health ministry said on Monday (Reuters).
• China reported on Monday more COVID-19 infections in its latest outbreak of the disease, while some cities added rounds of mass testing in the bid to stamp out locally-transmitted infections (Reuters).
• Iran. One person is now dying from COVID-19 every two minutes in Iran, state TV said on Monday, as the Middle East’s worst-hit nation reported a new record daily toll of 588 fatalities (Reuters).
• Vietnam has reported a record daily rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 9,690 new infections (Reuters).

Vaccination campaigns around the world continue. As of 08 August, Our World in Data reports 30% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 15.5% is fully vaccinated. 4.46 billion doses have been administered globally, and 38.57 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 as of 05 August over 3.98 billion administered vaccine doses.

As notable cases:

• South Korea‘s health minister apologised for COVID-19 vaccine shortages on Monday, saying Moderna would deliver less than half its planned shipment this month due to production issues (Reuters).
• Egypt on Monday received its first shipment of one-shot Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccines, obtaining 261,600 doses in cooperation with the African Union, the health ministry said (Reuters).
• Tunisia vaccinated more than half a million people yesterday after the country received more than 6 million vaccine doses (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.