Global lockdown tightens as virus deaths mount

Harsh lockdowns aimed at halting the march of the coronavirus has extended worldwide as the death toll soared past 35,000 and new waves of US outbreaks pushed the nation's containment efforts to the brink.

Despite slivers of hope in stricken Italy and Spain, the tough measures that have confined some two-fifths of the globe's population to their homes were broadened.

Moscow and Lagos joined the roll call of cities around the globe on Monday with eerily empty streets, while Virginia, Maryland and Kansas became the latest US states to announce emergency stay-at-home orders.

The capital city Washington followed suit.

In a symbol of the scale of the challenge facing humanity, a US military medical ship sailed into New York to relieve the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals bracing for the peak of the pandemic.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world topped 750,000, with 413,000 of those in Europe, while most of the confirmed deaths are also from the continent, according to an AFP tally.

World leaders -- several of whom have been stricken or forced into isolation -- are still grappling for ways to deal with a crisis that will have economic and social shockwaves unseen since World War II.

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed "closer cooperation" on the pandemic and talked about plunging oil prices in a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.

The US Navy's USNS Comfort, which has space for 1,000 beds and a dozen operating rooms, docked just a day after Trump extended social-distancing measures in the United States until the end of April.

"It will be good for morale," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio of the arrival of the Comfort, which will help people requiring intensive care unrelated to coronavirus, easing the burden on an overwhelmed hospital network.

In Russia, Putin urged residents of Moscow to "very seriously" respect a lockdown that has seen the closure of all non-essential shops, including restaurants and cafes, in Europe's largest city.

Red Square in the heart of Moscow was deserted and the surrounding streets were quiet.

Anna, a 36-year-old web designer, said the lockdown would be hard for her and her five-year-old daughter. "But I don't want Arina to get sick," she told AFP while on her way to buy bread. "So of course we will observe the quarantine."