Last month, Wuhan was overwhelmed with thousands of new cases of coronavirus each day, but in a dramatic development that underscores just how much the outbreak has pivoted toward Europe and the United States, Chinese authorities said Thursday that the city and it's surrounding province had no new cases to report.

The news offered a rare glimmer of hope for the rest of the world as it battles the virus, and perhaps a lesson in the strict measures needed to halt its spread. It came as President Donald Trump likened the fight to "a war" and invoked emergency authority to marshal industry to deal with the pandemic.

Wuhan was where the outbreak first took hold and thousands once lay sick or dying in hurriedly constructed hospitals. But Chinese authorities said Thursday that all 34 new cases recorded over the previous day had been imported from abroad.

"Today we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort," said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector of the national health commission.

Still the virus continued to take its toll elsewhere, both human and economic. Stocks tumbled again on Wall Street on fears of a prolonged recession, falling so fast they triggered another automatic trading halt, while major U.S. auto manufacturers said they were shutting down their North American factories.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 1,300 points on Wednesday, or over 6%, and has now lost nearly all of the gains it had posted since Trump's inauguration. Oil dropped below $21 per barrel for the first time since 2002. Shares in Asia continued their slide on Thursday.

Around the world, countries shut down their borders. The US and Canada both closed their borders to all but essential travel and Trump said he plans to assert extraordinary powers to immediately turn back to Mexico anyone who crosses over the southern border illegally.

Airline staff stands next to a flight schedule board showing numerous canceled flights due to the coronavirus at the Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. AP

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 invoked the Defense Production Act of 1950 to steer industrial output and overcome shortages of face masks, ventilators and other supplies as hospitals brace for an expected onslaught of cases.

The Korean War-era law gives the President extraordinary authority to compel industries to expand production and turn out vital materials. It was most recently used after the 2017 Puerto Rico hurricane to speed up contracts for food and other necessities.

"It's a war," Trump said, likening the coronavirus fight to measures taken during World War II and warning of national sacrifices ahead.

While China did not report any new cases in Wuhan or Hubei province it did record eight additional deaths.

Jiao Yahui said they were "delighted to see this double-zero increase" which meant their control and medical treatment methods were working well.

Wuhan has been under a strict lockdown since January. Officials are moving to loosen travel restrictions, but only inside the surrounding province of Hubei where most checkpoints will be taken down. Wuhan remains cut-off, with only those with special permission allowed to travel in or out.

The lockdown will be lifted there only if no additional cases are reported for two consecutive weeks, which may happen next month, Li Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was quoted as saying.

The virus has infected more than 218,000 people worldwide and killed over 8,800, mostly in China, Italy and Iran. The United Nations warned that the crisis could lead to the loss of nearly 25 million jobs around the world.

More than 84,000 people overall have recovered from the virus, which causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough in most cases. Severe illness is more likely in the elderly and those with existing health problems.

Though China still has the largest number of cases, most of its patients have recovered. 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 pandemic's shift, deaths in Italy were nearing China's toll. Italy had more than 2,900 dead after a record one-day total of 475; China's overall toll was around 3,200. Iran has also been hit hard, with more than 1,100 deaths.

Around the globe, governments 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. The US Census Bureau suspended field operations for two weeks, soon after it began its once-a-decade count of American people.

Ariel Nagbuya, an employee at The French Crepe Company, waits for customers in the sparsely populated The Original Farmers Market, Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in Los Angeles. ÁP

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 US 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, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, along with Honda and Toyota, said they will shut all of their factories in the US, Canada and Mexico. The closing of Detroit's Big Three alone will idle about 150,000 workers, who are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.

At GM's pickup truck assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, workers have been fearful since the virus surfaced in the US, said Tommy Wolikow, who has two young daughters.

That's the thing that I was scared the most about, being the one to bring it home to them [my daughters]

Tommy Wolikow, employee at GM

"That's the thing that I was scared the most about, being the one to bring it home to them," he said.

The US has reported more than 9,400 coronavirus cases and at least 138 deaths, about half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida is the first known member of Congress to test positive for the virus. Other members of Congress have self-quarantined, but none have reported positive test results.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who last week announced he tested positive, is sharing his experience in a daily YouTube diary and on Twitter as he runs the city from home isolation. His wife and children are staying with relatives.

"The longer I live with COVID-19, the more I understand just how crucial social distancing is," Suarez wrote.

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 unrecorded, and because of the lag in large-scale testing in the U.S.

In the first breakdown of its kind in the US, 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.

A sign reminding people about social distancing because of the coronavirus outbreak stands next to a roadway in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, March 18, 2020 AP

Updates from around the world

For interactive graphic tracking global spread, click here

AMERICAS

• All 50 states in the United States have reported cases and the total number of known U.S. infections closing in on 8,000. The U.S. death toll has climbed to at least 151.
• The United States and Canada closed their shared border to “non-essential traffic” on Wednesday to curb transmission of the coronavirus.- More than 60,000 homeless people could become ill with the coronavirus in California over the next eight weeks, badly straining the healthcare system.
• Mexico registered its first death from coronavirus on Wednesday.
• Canada has decided to provide an $18.6 billion aid package directly to affected families and businesses.
• Chile declared a 90-day state of catastrophe on Wednesday.
• Brazilian retail, transport and manufacturing were hammered, and the government stopped accepting Venezuelan refugees at the border.
• Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra restricted overnight movement across the country.
• Venezuela is concerned the coronavirus could spread like a fast-moving fire through the country’s notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary prisons.

Subway security service team prepare to use a thermal scanner to check the temperature of passengers inside the Komsomolskaya Metro (subway) station in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. AP

EUROPE

• Italy reported 475 new deaths on Wednesday, the largest increase in numerical terms since the outbreak first came to light on Feb. 21. The total number of confirmed cases grew by 4,207 to 35,713.
• French health authorities reported 89 new deaths from coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total to 264 or an increase of almost 51%.
• Russian media have deployed a “significant disinformation campaign” to sow panic in the West, according to a European Union document seen by Reuters.
• Poland will receive more than 10,000 test kits and tens of thousands of other protective items from China.
• Belgium imposed a lockdown from midday (1100 GMT) on Wednesday until April 5.
• Switzerland has extended border controls and suspended the issue of Schengen and national visas for three months.
• Ukraine, where a lawmaker tested positive, has imposed a state of emergency in the region around the capital Kiev.
• Croatia will close cinemas, restaurants and bars and shops but will allow food stores, pharmacies and petrol stations to function.
• President Tayyip Erdogan advised Turks on Wednesday not to leave home unless necessary for three weeks and to minimise social contact until the threat of the coronavirus recedes, but did not tell them to stay away from work.

Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up with the word Asia in support of those afflicted by the new coronavirus, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. AP

ASIA

• The Hubei province will transfer all arrivals from abroad to a central quarantine facility for 14 days.
• Taiwan said it would ban entry for most foreigners as its tally rose by 23 to 100 on Wednesday, most of them imported.
• Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from across Asia gathered at Gowa in Indonesia, just two weeks after a similar event in Malaysia caused more than 500 infections.
• Indonesia needs to immediately widen its testing for coronavirus to ensure detection of more infections, President Joko Widodo said on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Southeast Asian nation saw its biggest daily jump of 55 infections, for a total of 227 cases.
• Indonesia’s death toll jumped on Wednesday from five to 19 and Malaysia warned of “a tsunami” of cases if people did not follow new restrictions as infections surged across Southeast Asia.
• Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, has advised its residents to self-isolate at home until at least the end of March. The country has confirmed 76 cases of the virus, ten of which emerged on Wednesday.- In India, where 147 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed, authorities on Tuesday cancelled nearly two dozen long distance train services. A total of 276 Indians have tested positive for coronavirus overseas and 255 of them are currently in Iran.
• Bangladesh confirmed its first fatality from the disease on Wednesday, while its total tally of confirmed cases rose to 14.
• Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed its first two deaths from coronavirus as the total number of infected patients in the country climbed to 260.
• Sri Lanka, which has recorded 51 coronavirus cases, said it would ban all incoming flights for two weeks from Wednesday.
• Australia said on Thursday all non-citizens and non-residents would be banned from entering the country from 9 pm (1000 GMT) Friday. The country has recorded around 600 coronavirus infections and six deaths.
• New Zealand closed its borders to all foreigners from midnight on Thursday. It has confirmed 28 cases of the coronavirus so far.

In this photo released by the official website of the Office of the Iranian Presidency, cabinet members wearing face masks attend their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Office of the Iranian Presidency/AP

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

• The World Health Organization said the Middle East states need urgently to offer more information about cases.
• Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 1,135 on Wednesday with 147 new deaths in the past 24 hours, while the total number of infected people across the country has reached 17,361.
• The United Arab Emirates said it would bar foreign visitors while Saudi Arabia suspended most work in its private sector.
• Djibouti and Zambia confirmed their first cases on Wednesday.