Virus death toll tops 100,000 as Easter kicks off

The global coronavirus death toll topped 100,000 Friday as Easter celebrations around the world kicked off in near-empty churches with billions of people stuck indoors to halt the pandemic's deadly worldwide march.

The grim milestone came as the World Health Organization issued a dire warning that prematurely lifting lockdown restrictions - which have kept more than half the world's population in lockdown - could spark a "deadly resurgence" of the disease.

The extraordinary measures from New York to New Delhi to Naples have seen businesses and schools closed in a desperate bid to halt the virus's relentless spread and the International Monetary Fund said the world now faces the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

More than 1.6 million people have been infected around the world and the death toll hit 100,661 on Friday - nearly 70 percent in hard-hit Europe. The United States, which has quickly emerged as a virus hotspot, clocked more than 1,700 new deaths on Thursday - bringing its toll to second highest after Italy - with more than 500,000 infections, by far the most of any country.

But even as deaths and infections continued their upward climb, officials in the United States and Europe expressed some hope the curve could be starting to flatten.

Weekend Easter celebrations that would normally see churches around the world packed with parishioners were replaced by an eerie emptiness Friday as lockdown orders kept millions from leaving their homes.

Even such hallowed traditions as the pope's Easter message are being revamped - Pope Francis will live-stream from the seclusion of his private library. "We have to respond to our confinement with all our creativity," the pontiff said. "We can either get depressed and alienated... or we can get creative."

Worshippers in Germany embraced social distancing orders to celebrate Good Friday - at a drive-in service held in the western city of Duesseldorf. "It was a sad feeling at first because I would have liked to be in my church," Catholic priest Frank Heidkamp told AFP, as hundreds of congregation members gathered in a parking lot for the service.

"With this car service we're trying to create a little bit of community," he added. More than four billion people are confined to their homes across swathes of the globe as governments imposed never-before-seen measures to halt the virus's deadly global march. This week, China started to ease months-old lockdown orders in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December.