The United States is to deploy military hospital ships to fight the coronavirus, Donald Trump said Wednesday, as he likened himself to a "wartime president" and invoked a Korean War-era law.

As America and Canada announced they were closing their border to non-essential travelers, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said Trump was dispatching the navy's 1,000-room USNS Comfort to the city's harbor.

Fiji confirmed its first coronavirus case Thursday and immediately moved to seal off the city where the patient -- a flight attendant -- was based, as panic buying gripped the Pacific island nation.

Some 500 million people have been subject to lockdown measures around the world because of the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and has quickly ballooned globally, according to an AFP count.

Italy on Wednesday reported 475 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest one-day official toll of any nation since the first case was detected in China late last year.

Total deaths in Italy have reached 2,978, more than half of all the cases recorded outside China, while the number of infections stood at 35,713.

Though scientists are still scrambling to understand new coronavirus and its likely impact, experts are warning it could kill millions globally unless widespread and prolonged social distancing measures are adopted.  

The search for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is vital but cannot be rushed and must respect standard safety protocols, a leading expert has cautioned.

German state and federal governments announced steps Wednesday to boost medical capacity as the country battles a mounting coronavirus outbreak, planning to double intensive respiratory care and commandeer new spaces for treatment.

Israel closed off Palestinian-administered areas of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to limit the spread of the coronavirus, an official said.

Johns Hopkins University says the total number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus worldwide has surpassed 200,000.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering's online tally showed 201,436 cumulative cases by 11:13 GMT (6:13 a.m. EST) on Tuesday, with 82,032 listed as recovered.

The number of people infected by COVID-19 in Spain soared past 13,700 on Wednesday with the number of deaths rising to almost 600, government data showed.