Pope Francis said Sunday he would not be taking part in a planned six-day spiritual retreat south of Rome after coming down with a "cold". The 83-year-old pontiff suffered two coughing spells that forced him to turn away from the crowd and cover his mouth with his fist on a windy and cloudy day on Saint Peter's Square.

"Unfortunately, a cold forced me not to take part this year," he said after reciting the traditional Angelus Prayer and addressing the unfolding migrant crisis on Turkey's border with Greece.

The annual retreat will still start Sunday but only include members of the Roman Curia administration team of the Holy See. The pope will be staying home while the rest of Italy battles Europe's worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has spread from China to every continent except for Antarctica. The number of cases in Italy surpassed 1,000 on Saturday and the toll continues to mount.

There have been 29 confirmed deaths and 105 people were receiving intensive care treatment in hospital - all of them in three adjacent northern regions near Milan. The Vatican quickly shot down speculation that the pope himself had come down with COVID-19. "There is no evidence to suggest a diagnosis of anything other than a slight ailment," a Vatican spokesman told AFP Sunday.