Countries speed up efforts to slow down contagion

Italy urged the European Union on Monday to adopt a package of measures to counter the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak's impact on the bloc's economies. That came one day after it took a page from China's aggressive fight against the virus by restricting some 16 million people, a quarter of its population, in the country's prosperous north.

Areas under lockdown include Milan, Italy's financial hub and the principal city in Lombardy, and Venice, the main city in the neighboring Veneto region. The extraordinary measures will be in place until April 3.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that Italy would further increase its spending in a "massive shock therapy" to offset the economic impact caused by outbreak, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance said efforts will be made to ensure that "a package of measures is agreed at the EU level in coordination with the whole international community".

The country is dealing with the worst coronavirus epidemic outside of Asia. Deaths rose to 366 with more than 130 reported on Sunday, a 50 percent increase from the day before. The number of cases in the country nearly tripled from about 2,500 infections on Wednesday to more than 7,375 on Sunday.

Funerals and cultural events are banned. Schools are closed. The government's decree requires that people keep a distance of at least 1 meter from one another at sporting events, bars, churches and supermarkets.

"We are facing an emergency, a national emergency," Conte said as he announced the decree on Sunday.

Pope Francis for the first time livestreamed his Sunday Prayer, which usually draws thousands to St. Peter's Square in Rome.

Globally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 105,000 on Sunday as infections spread in at least 108 countries with more than 3,800 deaths, officials said.

In the United States, the virus is now in 33 states, with 533 cases and 21 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University as of Sunday afternoon.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, said on Sunday that it was possible there might be regional lockdowns in the US.

In California, the Grand Princess cruise ship, which has lingered in limbo for days off the coast with more than 3,500 passengers from 54 countries aboard, will dock at the Port of Oakland on Sunday "to begin disembarking guests who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization", the cruise line tweeted.

At least 21 people on board, including 19 crew members, have tested positive for the disease. "That number is fluid," said Governor Gavin Newsom at a news conference on Sunday, indicating that more people with the infectious disease might be identified after testing.

The crew will be quarantined on the ship, and it will leave Oakland as soon as possible, remaining elsewhere for the duration of the crew's quarantine, officials said. They didn't say where that location would be.

Newsom said 114 people have tested positive across California and more than 10,000 people across the state are being monitored.

Six states have declared states of emergency, granting their governors additional powers to fight the virus's spread: California, Florida, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Trump, asked on Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, if he was concerned about the growing number of confirmed cases, replied: "No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. We've done a great job."

But Fauci said on Sunday he isn't encouraged as he learns more about the outbreak's scope in the US.

"Unfortunately, that better sense (of the disease's scope) is not encouraging because we're seeing community spread," he told NBC's Meet the Press, referring to cases of the virus in people who had neither traveled outside the US nor had known contact with a confirmed case.

Fauci acknowledged that there have been delays in testing, saying there were "some missteps with regard to the test and some technical aspects to it". But he said distribution of test kits is accelerating, with 1.1 million kits already sent out, and an additional 400,000 planned by Monday with about 4 million by the end of next week.

Chen Yingqun in Beijing contributed to this story.