Christians celebrated Easter Sunday under coronavirus lockdown in many countries with church pews empty and the pope on live stream, as the US death toll from the disease passed 20,000.

At the climax of Holy Week for the planet’s two billion-plus Christians, congregations were shuttered at home to avoid spreading the pathogen that has infected at least 1.7 million worldwide.

Pope Francis broke with centuries of tradition by taking his Easter mass online, with Saint Peter’s Square – packed every year with worshippers – left deserted.

The US, with around a fifth of the more than 100,000 total Covid-19 deaths, topped the list for both fatalities and numbers of declared cases, said a tally maintained by Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

As of Wednesday, 22,073 positive cases among healthcare workers across 52 countries and regions had been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it said in its Saturday daily situation report.

However, it noted that the tally may be underrepresented due to a lack of systematic reporting of such figures.

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, has recorded more than 19,000 confirmed virus deaths – second only to the US, which has a population five times its size.

However, hopes began to rise in Western Europe and heavily infected parts of the US that the pandemic was peaking.

Many were looking to China’s Wuhan, where the disease first emerged late last year, as life began to return to normal while officials lifted stay-inside restrictions.

However for much of the world, from India to France, strict lockdowns were still in force.

A handful of US priests and pastors risked arrest by announcing they would hold public services in their churches on Sunday, snubbing rules and medical advice.

But most were putting services online, and some were innovating with “drive-in” blessings.

The hardest-hit countries of Europe, and the centres of infection in the US – New York and New Orleans – were seeing signs of infection rates levelling off.

Numbers from Spain offered a shred of hope on Saturday – 510 new deaths, a dip in fatalities for the third day in a row.

Newly reported coronavirus deaths in France also fell by one-third from Friday to 635.

“A very high plateau for the epidemic appears to have been reached, but the epidemic remains very active,” said French health official Jerome Salomon, urging people to remain vigilant.

Italy meanwhile said the number of daily deaths there was starting to level off – though the government resisted pressure to lift its lockdown, extending confinement measures until May 3.

New York and New Orleans saw a slowdown in the number of new infections, deaths and hospitalisations.

However, Britain on Saturday recorded its second-highest daily toll, as virus-stricken Prime Minister Boris Johnson made “very good progress” after being released from intensive care, a spokeswoman said.

Although global infections stand at 1.75 million, an AFP tally of official counts shows, the real number is thought to be much higher, with many countries only testing the most serious cases.

Many experts and the WHO are cautioning countries against lifting lockdown measures too quickly.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Friday that jumping the gun could lead to a “deadly resurgence” of the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2.

From the crowded slums of Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai to conflict hotspots in the Middle East, there are fears that the worst is yet to come for the world’s poorest.

In Brazil, a Yanomami indigenous boy died after contracting the coronavirus, authorities said on Friday, raising fears for the Amazon tribe, which is known for its vulnerability to disease.

The 15-year-old boy, the first Yanomami to be diagnosed with the virus, was hospitalised a week ago at an intensive care unit in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said.

He died of severe respiratory complications on Thursday night, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said in a statement.

A major outbreak among indigenous communities would amount to a “genocide”, said Katia Brasil, editor at Amazonia Real news agency, which specialises in issues facing Amazonian peoples.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said the disease was near its peak in the US and he is currently considering ways to re-open the world’s biggest economy as soon as possible.

“We look like we’ll be coming in on the very, very low side, below the lowest side of the curve of death,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.