Spain on Tuesday confirmed nearly 2,000 new cases of COVID-19, sending the total spiralling past 11,000, with 491 deaths, the health ministry said. 

Iran issued its most dire warning yet Tuesday about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting "millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance.

A state television journalist who also is a medical doctor gave the warning only hours after hard-line Shiite faithful the previous night pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines that had just been closed over fears of the virus.

China reported on Tuesday just one new domestic coronavirus infection but found 20 more cases imported from abroad, threatening to spoil its progress against the disease.

France was ordered into lockdown Monday as Europe closed its borders in the latest drastic attempt to combat the coronavirus pandemic, as President Donald Trump said the United States was readying for a month-long fight ahead.

Hours earlier, the leaders of the G7 industrial powerhouses had pledged to join forces to halt the economic freefall in the wake of the virus outbreak, calling it "a human tragedy."

Many streets in French cities were deserted Monday as schools, cafes and a range of businesses were shuttered on government orders and President Emmanuel Macron weighed additional measures to contain a fast-escalating coronavirus outbreak.

The World Health Organization called Monday for countries to test every suspected case of COVID-19, as the rest of the world registered more cases and deaths in the pandemic than China.

"You cannot fight a fire blindfolded," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, saying the WHO recommended that countries "Test, test, test. Test every suspected case."

There have now been more COVID-19 cases and deaths in the rest of the world than in China, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Monday announced new measures in the Russian capital to contain the spread of the coronavirus, including prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people, and closing schools and universities from March 21.

President Emmanuel Macron will address an anxious French nation on Monday night about the coronavirus outbreak that has seen schools, cafes and restaurants closed, the presidency said.

Iran said on Monday that the novel coronavirus had killed 129 more people, a new record high for a single day in one of the world's worst-hit countries.