April 2022

Offering tips, maps and other assistance for visiting Zürich, Switzerland, the Zürich City Guide app can be downloaded for free on Apple or Android.

The US Department of State posts up-to-date travel advisories on every country and many territories, ranking each 1 (Exercise Normal Precautions), 2 (Exercise Increased Caution), 3 (Reconsider Travel) or 4 (Do Not Travel). Note: A country’s regions are also ranked and may have different rankings than the country as a whole. Visit travel.state.gov and click on “Travel Advisories” at the top of the page.

The first case of wild polio identified in Africa since 2020 was found in a 3-year-old girl in Malawi. The continent was declared polio-free in 2020 after it had been five years since the last identified case, in Nigeria, was resolved. Malawian authorities are increasing vaccination in the area and isolating anyone exposed, to limit the infection.

Wild polio is endemic to only two countries in the world: Pakistan and Afghanistan. Testing of the Malawi infection showed that it was related to the strain found in Pakistan. Authorities do not know how it arrived in Malawi.

A fire broke out on the car deck of a Greek ferry traveling from the city of Igoumenitsa, northern Greece, to the Italian city of Brindisi on Feb. 18, killing at least one person and injuring five others. Ten people were still missing at press time. The Greek coast guard rescued 277 passengers and crew. The fire continued for three days despite efforts to put it out. Investigations into the cause were ongoing.

An earthquake measuring 6.2 in magnitude occurred in the mostly rural southwestern Guatemala region on Feb. 16, killing two people and triggering landslides that blocked roads. Two aftershocks measuring more than magnitude 4 followed, with no further reports of damage.

Northern Europe, particularly the United Kingdom and Ireland, experienced multiple major, named storms in February. It was the first time since the current storm-naming system went into effect, in 2015, that three such storms occurred within a week in that region.

On Feb. 18, Storm Eunice made landfall, with wind gusts of up to 122 miles per hour. Between the countries of Ireland, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, the storm killed at least nine people. Millions of people throughout the region were left without power, in some cases for a week.

A landslide and flash floods killed at least 176 people in the eastern Brazilian city of Petrópolis on Feb 16, with more than 110 people still missing at press time. The city received as much rain the day before as it typically receives in the entire month of February.

The hilly city, north of Rio de Janeiro, is prone to landslides, the worst recorded incident having occurred in 2011 when more than 900 were killed.

On Feb. 22, Russian president Vladimir Putin recognized two regions in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, as independent ethnically Russian states. The next day, the Russian military invaded Ukraine on multiple fronts, shelling and bombing major cities, including the capital, Kyiv. At press time, only one major city, Kherson, was confirmed by Ukrainian authorities to have fallen to Russian troops.