GENEVA • The World Health Organisation has declared Europe the "epicentre" for the global coronavirus pandemic, warning that it was impossible to know when the outbreak would peak.

"Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday, noting the continent had "more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China".

"More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic," he said, referring to the global numbers. The virus, which first surfaced in China last December, has now killed more than 5,400 people worldwide, with cases topping 146,000. The deaths passing the 5,000 mark was "a tragic milestone", Dr Tedros said.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, who heads the WHO's emerging diseases unit, said: "It's impossible for us to say when this will peak globally. We hope that it is sooner rather than later."

The comments came as countries around the world continued to close borders, shut schools and restrict large gatherings to stem the spread of the virus.

Dr Tedros said such measures could help, but stressed that countries needed to take "a comprehensive approach". "You can't fight a virus if you don't know where it is," he said, calling on countries to "find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission".

"Any country that looks at the experience of other countries with large epidemics and thinks 'that won't happen to us' is making a deadly mistake."

Italy has recorded more than 17,600 confirmed cases and 1,266 deaths. In Spain, some 5,200 people were infected and 133 dead. France has reported more than 3,600 cases and 79 deaths.

In the Italian capital of Rome, some Catholic churches reopened on Friday after Pope Francis voiced displeasure with the authorities' push to shut them in a rare stand-off between the 83-year-old pontiff and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government.

Italy has been put under lockdown in recent days, with people told to avoid going out and machine-gun-toting soldiers now patrolling city streets. But churches have stayed open in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

That changed when the vicar of Rome on Thursday said he could no longer withstand government pressure and was closing all Catholic places of worship across the capital. The Rome diocese lists slightly over 1,000 churches - about 900 of them Catholic ones.

The Pope's response was unusually swift and blunt. "Drastic measures are not always good," he said in live-streamed Friday morning prayer. He prayed for "pastors to have the good judgment... not to leave the holy, faithful people of God alone".

The vicar of Rome then issued a statement explaining that he had had "a further meeting" with the pontiff in which it was decided to let at least some churches reopen, as closing them "will sow confusion" among the faithful and see some "feel even more isolated".

Vicar Angelo De Donatis' decree explained that all of Rome's churches would remain closed to tourists. But smaller houses of worship would open in some places.

The Pope urged priests on Friday "to have the courage to go out and see the sick, bringing the strength of the word of God".

In Spain, the government will put the country under lockdown from tomorrow as part of state of emergency measures, a draft of an official decree obtained by Reuters showed yesterday. The government will say all Spaniards must stay home except to buy food, go to the pharmacy, hospital, work or attend to emergencies, the draft showed. Public transport will be curtailed to carry fewer people but will not be suspended, it showed.

The government said a Cabinet meeting to decide on the measures was still ongoing. A day earlier, major regions in Spain had already shut shops, with car plants halting work and parades cancelled.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the number of coronavirus cases could top 10,000 by this week - double the current level. Spain has Europe's second-highest number of cases after Italy.

"Heroism is also washing your hands and staying home," Mr Sanchez said in a televised address to the nation on Friday. He did not spell out what emergency powers he would use, or what help shut-down businesses would get.

The order allows the government to confine people, ration supplies and requisition factories and buildings, apart from private homes.

But, in a sign of brewing tension between regions and his administration, some regional leaders called on the central government to provide more support.

The regional government of Catalonia said it was ready to confine the whole region and asked the central authorities to block its access by air, rail and water, regional leader Quim Torra said.

Madrid's regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso said she did not have the power to put the capital on lockdown and that such a decision would have to come from the central government.

Her government in Spain's richest region said that until at least March 26, bars, restaurants and shops, except for food shops, petrol stations and others selling essential items, would be closed. The decision was met with dismay and confusion by some in Madrid, home to half of Spain's coronavirus cases.

"It is a disaster for employers and workers," said waiter Mustafa Elkeneski, 39, who works in a cafe in the centre of the city. "We don't know how it will work out. The issue of pay is up in the air."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS