Billions around the world celebrated Easter Sunday from lockdown at home as the pope urged solidarity to fight the coronavirus pandemic and the European death toll from the virus topped 75,000.
Unprecedented scenes of empty churches emerged from Italy to Panama and the Philippines, as religious leaders found creative ways to address parishioners marking the holiday weekend from the confines of their homes.
More than half the world -- over four billion people -- are in lockdown worldwide as governments scramble to halt the pandemic's deadly march across the globe.
The death toll from the virus soared past 109,000 this weekend, with more than 1.7 million reported infections globally.
Europe is by far the hardest-hit continent and on Sunday marked a grave milestone with more than 75,000 dead, according to an AFP tally.
The United States was quickly emerging as a hotspot as well, and on Saturday marked its own grim landmark: more than 20,000 dead, out of around half a million infected.
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The US now has the highest death toll and the most cases out of any country in the world.
Speaking from a near-empty Saint Paul's Cathedral, Pope Francis' Easter Sunday message was largely focused on the pandemic, offering prayers for the ill and urging a united European front to fight the pandemic.
"For many, this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties," he said, in a livestreamed message beamed around the world.
He called for European "solidarity" in the face of the virus, adding: "After the Second World War, this beloved continent was able to rise again." The pope had earlier urged creativity to mark the holy weekend -- a call that appears to have been met by some of the world's two billion-plus Christians.
In Panama an archbishop blessed his nation from a helicopter, while worshippers in Spain blasted music from their balconies and US President Donald Trump said he would be among those following Easter services online.
In a church north of the Philippines capital Manila, hundreds of pictures of parishioners were taped to pews as a priest held a Sunday service to a near-empty room.
"Those photos are the representations of the people who are watching and attending mass through livestreaming, so we also feel their presence virtually," said Father Mark Christopher De Leon.
"This is our way of being with them, praying for them spiritually, praying for them, praying for their safety."
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