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Europe's coronavirus death toll surges past 20,000, Chinese epicenter Wuhan partially reopens

The fast-growing death toll from coronavirus on Saturday crossed 20,000 in Europe, with hardest-hit Italy and Spain both reporting more than 800 dead in a single day.

As many as one-third of the world's population is now living under lockdown and US President Donald Trump says he is considering placing New York state under "quarantine", as the Chinese city where the outbreak began has begun to return to normality.

The worst-hit country, Italy, announced 889 new COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, pushing it past the 10,000 marks, and Spain added 832, as Madrid officials said the epidemic seemed to be nearing a peak.

Russia will become the latest country to close borders on Monday in an attempt to slow the pandemic's spread, according to a government decree.

More than 600,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been officially recorded around the world since the outbreak began late last year, according to an AFP tally.

Variations in testing regimes mean the true number is likely far higher and confirmed deaths are mounting.

Europe is now the worst-hit continent with 20,059 deaths. France has seen close to 2,000 fatalities and the British toll passed 1,000 on Saturday.

Spanish official Fernando Simon suggested the virus was "very, very close" to peaking in his country: "The increase is slowing or stabilizing little-by-little."

Elsewhere, Iran announced 139 more deaths and India sealed off a dozen Punjab villages that had been visited by a guru now known to be infected and a possible "super-spreader".

Sri Lanka recorded its first death and Turkey hit 100 fatalities.

South African police resorted to rubber bullets in Johannesburg to enforce social distancing on a crowd queueing for supplies outside a supermarket during a national lockdown.

The United States now has the world's highest number of COVID-19 cases but per capita, European nations are still the worst hit, with emergency services across the world struggling to cope.