A cashier wearing a face shield for protection against the deadly new coronavirus bags groceries for a customer at the Local Market Foods store in Chicago. — AFP/VNA Photo

PARIS — The United States saw nearly 2,000 coronavirus deaths for a second day running as the toll soared again in Europe, despite US President Donald Trump's insistence that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Governments are grappling with how to balance public safety against the devastating economic impact of stay-at-home orders that have erased millions of jobs in a matter of weeks.

More than 86,000 people worldwide have died in the virus crisis, which has sent the global economy spiralling and forced billions of people to remain at home as much as possible.

As the economic downturn starts to bite, health experts stressed that any premature loosening of restrictions could accelerate the spread of a contagion that has already infiltrated nearly every country.

In France, one of the hardest-hit nations in Europe with more than 10,000 deaths, President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation next week to explain the path forward.

The confinement order issued on March 17 "will be extended" beyond the current deadline of April 15, an official close to Macron said.

The United States reported the highest one-day toll on record, with 1,973 deaths over a 24-hour period -- reaching nearly 2,000 for the second day in  a row.

Italy and Spain are still recording hundreds of deaths a day, and the situation is also deteriorating in Britain, which saw a record 938 fatalities on Wednesday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third day in intensive care.

The 55-year-old leader's condition is "improving" and he is in "good spirits", officials assured the public.

In New York, the epicentre of the US outbreak, the state's governor noted

the new single-day high for virus deaths at 779, but offered an optimistic view for the weeks to come.

"We are flattening the curve," Andrew Cuomo told reporters, as he cited a decreasing hospitalization rate due to stay-at-home orders.

That optimism was shared by US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who both said the data seemed to indicate a turn for the better.

"We are hopefully heading towards a final stretch, the light at the end of the tunnel," Trump told reporters.

Pence chimed in: "We're beginning to see glimmers of hope."

In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first emerged in

December, there was cause for celebration as a ban on outbound travel was lifted.

But Malta joined the ranks of those in mourning, recording its first death.

Global trade to plummet

The head of the World Trade Organisation, Roberto Azevedo, issued a dire

warning, saying the economic fallout from the health emergency could be "the deepest economic recession or downturn of our lifetimes".

Germany and France, the EU's two largest economies, are bracing for a painful hit.

Gross domestic product in export powerhouse Germany is expected to shrink by nearly 10 per cent in the second quarter, the country's leading research institutes said.

France is already in a technical recession, the Bank of France said. Its first-quarter performance was its worst since 1945.

But officials at the US Federal Reserve said the wide-ranging shuttering of

businesses should not have the lasting impact that was seen in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008.

As some European countries weighed easing lockdown measures to allow economic activity to resume in earnest, the World Health Organization urged against it.

"Now is not the time to relax measures," said WHO's Europe director Hans Kluge.

"It is the time to once again double and triple our collective efforts to drive towards suppression with the whole support of society."

Bailout efforts

Governments worldwide are rolling out staggering stimulus measures to ease the economic pain.

In Washington, Democrats demanded an additional $500 billion to battle the crisis, doubling the government's request to help small businesses and imperilling the rapid approval of emergency aid lawmakers sought this week.

The eurozone is also mired in bickering over a bailout plan for its hard-hit members that would come on top of measures enacted by individual governments. Talks resume on Thursday.

The markets continued their volatile movement, with the Dow closing up 3.4 per cent in New York after European stocks faltered.

For those who have lost their jobs during the crisis, survival is already a struggle.

"With the coronavirus, I'm suffocating," 55-year-old Gabriel Rodriguez said in Miami, where he spent five hours in line to apply for unemployment benefits.

"I have to pay for the car, I have to pay the phone bill -- how am I going to pay that? And the rent too!" — AFP