Workers banged away at construction sites in Rome, police handed out masks in Madrid and older children returned to school in Vienna as Europe on Monday gingerly stepped out of its coronavirus lockdown.

Iran on Monday reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from the novel coronavirus as it announced another 74 deaths from the disease.

Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the new fatalities brought to 6,277 the total number officially recorded in Iran since it reported its first cases in mid-February.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 3.5 million on Monday, with three quarters of them in Europe and the United States, an AFP tally based on official sources showed.

France said Sunday that it would not quarantine anyone arriving from the EU, the Schengen area or Britain due to the coronavirus, as it prepares to start easing confinement measures after two months of lockdown.

President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.

"We are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year," Trump said in a Fox News "town hall" show broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Japan's government prepared Monday to extend its nationwide state of emergency to the end of May as it braces for a lengthy battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Chile ordered strict new quarantine measures on three districts in the capital Santiago after a sudden spike in coronavirus cases Sunday.

Portugal will begin to ease its coronavirus lockdown on Monday, with small shops, hair salons and car dealers resuming operations as a state of emergency was lifted after more than six weeks.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

European nations on Sunday prepared for further cautious easing of coronavirus restrictions following signs the pandemic may be slowing, with hard-hit Italy set to follow Spain in allowing people outside after weeks of confinement.