By Agence France-Presse and Reuters ROME/LONDON – Coronavirus deaths soared across Europe and the United States on Sunday despite heightened restrictions, as Germany banned gatherings of more than two people and Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine. In the US, President Donald Trump ordered emergency medical stations for hotspots, hospitals scrambled to find ventilators, and a trillion-dollar proposal to rescue America's reeling economy crashed to defeat. Germany and Greece became the latest countries to tighten curtailments on movement as the virus kept nearly a billion people indoors and intensified fears of a global recession unlike any experienced for decades. "I can't tell you," Trump said when asked when the US economy would be reopened. Earlier, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that the US was heading towards its greatest crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The death toll from the virus -- which has upended lives and closed businesses and schools across the planet -- surged to more than 14,300 Sunday, according to an AFP tally. There have been more than 324,290 infections reported in 171 countries and territories. The epicenter is firmly in Europe after shifting from China where the illness first emerged late last year. "I'm a little upset with China. I'll be honest with you...," Trump said referring to a lack of cooperation and information early on in the crisis. Italy's world-topping toll from the pandemic approached 5,500 as the Mediterranean country reported another 651 deaths, a day after it overtook China for the highest number of fatalities. Greece imposed a national lockdown and in Germany Merkel began home quarantine after being treated by a doctor who has since tested positive for the virus. But lockdown measures in Italy have done little to stem the outbreak and New Yorkers were finding it difficult on a spring weekend to put a stop to fun in the city that never sleeps. 'Self-destructive' "I don't know what they're not understanding," said Governor Andrew Cuomo, complaining that parks were still full of people not respecting social-distancing orders. "It's insensitive, it's arrogant, it's self-destructive, it's disrespectful to other people and it has to stop. This is not a joke," he pleaded. Police patrolled the deserted streets of Rome, while checks were carried out on beaches after local officials complained people were defying orders to catch some time in the sun. In his weekly prayer, streamed online to avoid attracting crowds, the Pope urged all Italians to follow isolation measures "for the good of us all." Spain's prime minister said he would ask parliament to extend a 15-day state of emergency, which bars people from leaving home unless absolutely essential, until April 11. The country recorded close to 400 new fatalities Sunday, bringing the total to 1,720, suggesting the lockdown was failing to be effective. Opera star Placido Domingo said he had tested positive. Residents across France, where the death toll jumped to 562, remained confined in their homes. A curfew was imposed in some regions and the mayor of Paris called for even more drastic confinement measures in a city under lockdown. Tracking the virus UK scientists will track the spread of the new coronavirus and watch for emerging mutations by using gene sequencing to analyze the strains causing thousands of COVID-19 infections across the country, Britain said on Monday. Researchers will collect data from samples from infected patients in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the government said in a statement. At least 281 Britons have died from COVID-19. "This virus is one of the biggest threats our nation has faced in recent times, and crucial to helping us fight it is understanding how it is spreading," said Sharon Peacock, director of Public Health England's (PHE) national infection service. Working in teams across Britain, scientists will map out and analyze the full genetic codes of the COVID-19 samples. "Genomic sequencing will help us understand COVID-19 and its spread. It can also help guide treatments in the future and see the impact of interventions," Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, said in the statement. In epidemics, genome sequencing can help scientists monitor small changes in the virus at a national or international scale to understand how it is spreading and whether different strains are emerging. "Right now, the important questions we can help answer with sequencing are to help understand the role of international importations into the UK," said Nick Loman, a professor of microbial genomics and bioinformatics at Birmingham University. The 20 million pound ($23 million) project, called the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, will be co-led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, which specializes in genetic research, PHE and other public health agencies, as well as the National Health Service and several academic institutions. "All viruses accumulate mutations over time, some faster than others," said Paul Klenerman, a professor at Oxford University who will be involved in the work. "For Covid-19, this has only just begun - but this emerging variation can be tracked in detail."