By TIM SULLIVAN and DAVID RISING

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday moved to invoke emergency authority to marshal industry to fight the coronavirus, as the economic fallout from the crisis mounted with word that Detroit’s Big Three automakers are shutting down their North American factories to protect workers.

On a day of head-spinning developments:

— Stocks tumbled again on Wall Street on fears of a prolonged recession, falling so fast they triggered another automatic trading halt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 1,300 points, or over 6 percent, and has now lost nearly all the big gains it registered since Trump’s inauguration. Oil dropped below $21 per barrel for the first time since 2002.

— More borders slammed shut across Europe and North America, with the U.S. and Canada agreeing to close their shared boundary to all but essential travel, and Trump saying he plans to assert extraordinary powers to immediately turn back to Mexico anyone who crosses the border illegally.

— And the White House pressed Congress to swiftly pass a potentially $1 trillion rescue package to prop up the economy and speed relief checks to Americans in a matter of weeks.

Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump said he would employ the Defense Production Act as needed to steer industrial output and overcome shortages of face masks, ventilators and other supplies needed against the expected onslaught of cases.

The law, which dates to 1950, during the Korean War, gives the president extraordinary authority to compel industries to expand production and turn out vital materials.

“It’s a war,” Trump said, likening the anti-coronavirus efforts to measures taken during World War II and warning of national sacrifices.

The virus has infected more than 200,000 people worldwide and killed over 8,000. The United Nations warned that the crisis could cost lead to the loss of nearly 25 million jobs around the world.

Around the globe, officials took increasingly drastic measures to fight the epidemic and the threat of a recession, in some cases using emergency powers.

California’s governor warned that martial law could be imposed. The mayor of New York said the city’s 8.6 million residents should be prepared for a lockdown. Czech authorities used emergency powers to raid a warehouse and seize hundreds of thousands of face masks. And Hong Kong widened the use of electronic wristbands that monitor people under self-quarantine.

With a growing number of Americans thrown out of work by the near-shutdown of much of the U.S. economy, Trump also said the Housing and Urban Development Department will suspend foreclosures and evictions from public housing.

The Trump administration’s plan for issuing relief checks to Americans calls for the payment of $500 billion in two installments over the next two months. The amounts have yet to be decided but would be based on income and family size.

Ford and General Motors said they will shut down all of their factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and Fiat Chrysler will do the same, according to two people who were briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because the closings had not been announced.

The shutdowns would idle about 150,000 workers, who are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.

The U.S. reported more than 6,500 coronavirus cases and at least 121 deaths, almost half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died.

Some bright spots emerged: Wuhan, the locked-down Chinese city where the virus was first detected in late December, reported just one new case for a second straight day Wednesday. The situation had improved enough that China even sent medical supplies to hard-hit France, returning a favor done by the French weeks ago.

But in a grim illustration of the epidemic’s shifting center of gravity, the death toll in Italy was close to overtaking China’s. Italy had more than 2,900 dead after a record one-day total of 475; China’s toll was just over 3,200. Iran has also been hit hard, with more than 17,000 cases and 1,100 deaths.

In releasing the new global infection figure of over 200,000, Johns Hopkins University said more than 82,000 people have recovered from the virus, which causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough in most cases, with severe illness more likely in the elderly and those with existing health problems.

Still, scientists have no doubt the true number of people infected is higher than reported because of the possibility that many mild cases have gone unrecognized or unreported, and because of the lag in large-scale testing in the U.S., where the effort has been marked by bumbling and bureaucratic delay.

In the first breakdown of its kind in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the nation’s coronavirus deaths so far mirror what has been reported in other countries, with about 4 out of 5 fatalities occurring in people 65 and older, and no deaths in children.

The coronavirus is present in all 50 states after West Virginia reported its first infection. In far-flung Hawaii, the governor encouraged travelers to postpone their island vacations. Las Vegas casinos were closed for the time since President John F. Kennedy’s funeral in 1963.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that residents should be prepared for the possibility of a shelter-in-place order within days — a near-lockdown like the one covering almost 7 million people in the San Francisco Bay area. In the most sweeping measure of its kind in the U.S., they are allowed to leave their homes only for food, medicine or exercise.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom put the National Guard on alert for humanitarian duties such as food distribution, as some grocery stores resorted to rationing to control panic buying. But he also said “we have the ability to do martial law” if necessary.

Meanwhile, miles-long traffic jams spread at border crossings around Europe after leaders closed international boundaries to nonessential traffic. Tens of thousands of people across the continent struggled to return home amid the closed land crossings and dramatic cuts in airline flights.

At one point, trucks were backed in Austria up for 28 kilometers (17 miles) and cars for 14 kilometers (nearly 9 miles).

In an unprecedented move during peacetime, the French army started evacuating critical coronavirus patients from eastern France, the country’s worst-hit region. France is Europe’s third worst-hit country in fatalities, with at least 175.

In Southeast Asia, the causeway between Malaysia and the financial hub of Singapore was eerily quiet after Malaysia shut its borders, while the Philippines backed down on an order giving foreigners 72 hours to leave from a large part of its main island.

Taiwan said that it, too, would ban foreigners from entry and citizens would have to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days.

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The headline has been corrected to say 200,000 virus cases, not deaths.

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AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

By CHRIS BLAKE and FRANK JORDANS

BERLIN (AP) — Tens of millions of people hunkered down in government-ordered isolation Tuesday as borders slammed shut, schools and businesses closed and increasingly drastic restrictions on movement took effect. Others were scrambling to get home, caught up in widespread travel restrictions that aimed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

From Southeast Asia to Europe to the Americas, people found their lives upended by lockdowns and social distancing.

Shoppers in Malaysia stood in long lines to stock up at picked-over supermarkets. Commuters in the Philippines waited in huge traffic jams at checkpoints set up to take their temperatures before entering the capital of Manila. Seven counties around San Francisco issued a sweeping shelter-in-place mandate, ordering millions to stay at home and go outside only for food, medicine and essential outings.

Spain, now the fourth-most infected country, saw infections rise Tuesday by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 and virus-related deaths jump by almost 200 to 491. Only China, Italy and Iran had more infections.

With the number of cases worldwide topping 183,000, a surge of patients in Madrid’s hospitals has fueled worries across Europe of what lies ahead. Pleas went out to send masks and ventilators to places like Italy and Spain that are struggling with soaring caseloads.

“There is no easy or quick way out of this extremely difficult situation,” Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said in the first televised speech by a Dutch leader since 1973.

Iran state TV warned the virus could kill “millions” in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps on traveling, ignoring health guidance. World Health Organization officials have said the number of cases there — nearly 15,000 with 853 deaths — have been sharply underreported.

Airlines across the world have slashed flights due to a plunge in demand but also because many countries have been barring foreign arrivals.

Turkey planned to evacuate 3,614 citizens stranded in nine European countries after flights were suspended, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

Germany launched a 50 million-euro ($56-million) effort to bring home thousands of tourists stranded in popular winter vacation spots across the globe, including up to 5,000 in Morocco alone.

“Even if we will do everything humanly possible, we cannot in every case provide a solution within 24 hours,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned.

In Lithuania, trucks seeking to enter Poland backed up in a line 60 kilometers (37 miles) long after Poland closed its border to foreigners due to the new coronavirus. German police organized a convoy to help stranded citizens from Baltic states get back home by ferry after the Poland closure.

Italy reported another jump in infections, up to 27,980. With 2,158 deaths, Italy now accounts for well over a quarter of the global death toll.

The cascade of event cancellations continued, with Thailand calling off its water festival in April and the Kentucky Derby reportedly prepared to delay the famous U.S. horse race for the first time since World War II. India shut down the Taj Mahal.

Some bright spots emerged. Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected late last year and which has been under lockdown for weeks, reported just one new case Tuesday.

The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, for most people, but severe illness is more likely in the elderly and people with existing health problems. COVID-19 has killed over 7,100 people so far but more than 79,000 have recovered.

The economic toll from the crisis to both companies and individuals was only escalating. Shares reversed early losses in Asia on Tuesday after the U.S. stock market plunged to its worst day in more than three decades. Huge swaths of many economies have come to a standstill as businesses and travel shut down due to the outbreak.

“It’s shocking, in a way. I’m still in the throes of processing it. It means I need to find a way to support myself from home,” said Tyler Baldwin, a 29-year-old bartender in Seattle.

A senior South Korean health official, Kwon Jun-wook, urged people to take the virus seriously.

“In a similar way to how the Sept. 11 attacks completely changed people’s perception about security, quarantine authorities like us believe the daily lives of all the people around the world will be changed because of COVID-19,” Kwon told reporters Tuesday. “From now on, if you are sick, you should voluntarily rest to prevent a spread to others.”

Malaysia banned foreign travel and is allowing only essential services to stay open. France allowed people to leave home only to buy food, go to work, or do essential tasks. French President Emmanuel Macron said the restrictions were tightened because people hadn’t complied with earlier guidelines and “we are at war.”

The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Somalia, which has one of Africa’s weakest health systems.

As the pandemic expanded across Europe, the Mideast and the Americas, China and South Korea were trying to hold their hard-fought gains. China is quarantining new arrivals, who in recent days have accounted for an increasing number of cases, and South Korea will increase screenings of all overseas arrivals starting Thursday.

Infections have continued to slow in South Korea’s worst-hit city of Daegu. But there’s concern over a steady rise of infections around Seoul, where new clusters have emerged.

In the United States, officials urged older Americans and those with chronic health conditions to stay home, and recommended all group gatherings be capped at 10 people. Americans returning from abroad encountered chaotic airport health screenings that clearly broke all virus-fighting rules against crowds

School closings in 56 countries kept more than 516 million students home, the United Nations said. New York City joined those ranks Monday, closing a school system with 1.1 million students.

Some countries that had resisted more stringent measures snapped into action, too.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to eliminate unnecessary contact with others, working from home where possible and avoiding bars, restaurants, theaters and other venues. Schools remained opened for the time being.

Some scientists, and many worried Britons, have said the government should have taken tough action sooner.

Britain’s dramatic escalation of social restrictions to fight COVID-19 was sparked by new scientific evidence suggesting that 250,000 people in the U.K. and more than 1 million in the U.S. might die if the country did not suppress the spread of the new coronavirus.

The analysis, published by Imperial College London epidemiologists, drew on the latest data from Italy. It found that a strategy of “mitigation” — slowing but not stopping the spread of the virus while protecting vulnerable groups like the elderly — would still lead to a huge number of cases that would overwhelm the health care system.

The scientists said a tougher “suppression” strategy would sharply reduce deaths but would “need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more).”

As the virus ebbed domestically, China promoted its efforts to help other virus-stricken countries, including Italy, South Korea and Iran.

“When everyone needs to work together to fight the epidemic, no country can stand aloof, and we all must work together to get over the difficulties,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang Geng told reporters.

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Blake reported from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Adam Geller in New York, Mike Corder in Amsterdam, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, Chris Bodeen and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak