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Italians braced for a second day of national lockdown Wednesday after a sharp spike in coronavirus-related deaths, as New York deployed the National Guard to contain a disease that has sown worldwide panic.

Europe’s hardest-hit country said the death toll from the COVID-19 virus had risen on Tuesday by a third to 631, with the surging epidemic playing havoc with global sporting, cultural and political events.

The Vatican says it is closing Saint Peter’s Square and its main basilica to tourists — but Vatican sources say worshippers are still allowed in.

The measure was put in place to curb any spread of the coronavirus, which has sent Italy into lockdown. The areas will remain closed until 3 April.

The announcement sparked a wave of confusion because churches are supposed to remain open across Italy as a whole during the country’s month-long ban on public gatherings.

But a Vatican source later clarified to AFP that anyone who expresses a wish to pray at the basilica can still pass through the police barrier and walk onto the main square.

While authorities in China, where the outbreak began, have declared it “basically curbed”, cases are multiplying around the world, sparking panic buying in shops, and wild swings on financial markets.

Its seemingly relentless march has now claimed its first victim in Central America, with a 64-year-old man dying in Panama on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump, who spent the weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago resort, has been furiously defending his administration’s response to the growing coronavirus outbreak. This report produced by Jonah Green.

China remains the hardest-hit overall with more than 80 000 cases and 3 000 deaths, out of a global total of 117 339 cases and 4 251 people dying across 107 countries and territories, according to an AFP tally.

Beijing reported an increase in imported cases yesterday, fuelling concerns that infections from overseas could undermine its progress in halting the spread of the virus.

Coronavirus is infecting all walks of life, including politics, with US Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden both cancelling campaign rallies and British health minister Nadine Dorries saying she had tested positive.

And amid criticism of the US authorities’ response, New York deployed the National Guard for the first time during the crisis to help contain the spread of the disease from an infection-hit suburb. “It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster in the country. This is literally a matter of life and death,” said state governor Andrew Cuomo.

Residents also expressed fear. “People are scared, it’s an unusual situation to be in,” Miles Goldberg, who runs a New Rochelle bar, said.

“It makes people nervous to be around others, it makes people nervous to get inside into businesses and such,” he said.

At least 28 people have died in the US with 1 025 infected, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University — nearly double the 550 total confirmed cases the day before.

Pope Francis also seemed to muddy the waters, holding a mass in which he urged priests to go out and visit the sick — something Conte has specifically discouraged.

Sporting events continued to fall victim to the virus as authorities urge people to avoid large gatherings.

Arsenal’s game at Manchester City was postponed after players from the London club were put into quarantine, making it the first Premier League fixture to be called off because of the virus.

Morocco’s health ministry has confirmed the country’s first death linked to the new coronavirus was an 89-year-old woman who suffered from chronic health problems.

The woman, a Moroccan citizen who had been living in Italy, “suffered from chronic illnesses affecting the respiratory and cardiovascular system”, the ministry said in a statement.

She returned to Morocco in late February, before testing positive for the virus and being transferred under medical supervision to a hospital in Casablanca, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, DRC confirmed its first case in the capital Kinshasa — the largest city in French-speaking Africa.

The country’s health ministry said on Tuesday that the patient is a Belgian citizen who has been in the country for several days and is confined to a hospital. 

Two other infections have been confirmed in Morocco, one being a man who came home from Italy and a French tourist who arrived in Marrakesh on Saturday. Both are under medical supervision.

Moroccan authorities have imposed restrictions on sporting and cultural events, including closing stadia to the public.

l The Western Cape has its first positive case of the coronavirus, Premier Alan Winde revealed yesterday

“A short while ago, the National Minister of Health [Zweli Mkhize] informed us that we have a first coronavirus confirmed case for the Western Cape,” Winde.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa has increased to 15, Dr Mkhize confirmed. — Al Jazeera\AFP