Anxiety over the new coronavirus epidemic sent global stock markets and oil prices plunging Monday and caused a cascading shutdown of sites and events ranging from the Sistine Chapel to Saudi schools to a Holocaust march. Global oil prices suffered their worst losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War.

While many of Beijing’s white-collar workers returned to work as new cases of infection subsided in China, some 16 million people under a widespread lockdown in northern Italy struggled to figure out the new rules of their daily existence.

Travellers at Milan’s main train station had to sign police forms self-certifying that they are traveling for “proven work needs,” situations of necessity, health reasons or to return home. They also needed to provide identity documents, contact numbers and an exact reason for travel.

Italy’s financial hub of Milan and its popular tourist city of Venice were among the places under the quarantine lockdown. Across Italy, museums and archaeological sites were closed, weddings were cancelled and restaurants were told to keep patrons a meter (3.3 feet) apart. The country has counted 7,375 cases of COVID-19 virus and 366 deaths, more than any country outside of Asia.

Pope Francis celebrated Mass by himself Monday at the Vatican hotel where he lives, live-streaming the event, but resumed some meetings.

China’s slow re-emergence from weeks of extreme travel restrictions offers a grim sense of the longer-term effects the virus can have on a country’s economy.

Infections were reported in more than half the world’s countries and flashpoints were erupting around the globe. In all, more than 110,000 people have tested positive for the disease and more than 3,800 people with the virus have died around the world, most of them in China. Some 62,000 people have already recovered.

In Iran, state television said the virus had killed another 43 people, pushing the official toll up to 237 with 7,161 confirmed cases. But many fear the scope of illness is far wider there.