There were 15,123 new confirmed cases of the virus yesterday and 786 deaths, taking the global tallies to 191,127 and 7,807 respectively, the World Health Organisation said.

For the fourth time in eight sessions, market-wide circuit breakers temporarily halted trade on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 closed 5.2% lower.

Commodity prices are also tumbling.

Copper has fallen below the US$5,000 per tonne mark on the London Metal Exchange, with the cash price closing down 7.8% to $4,729.50/t.

The WTI oil price has dropped to about $20 a barrel, "raising the prospect of a move to the 2001 lows around $18," IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.

Gold has dropped below $1,500 an ounce again and was last worth about $1,485/oz on the spot market.

Gold major Newmont (NYSE: NEM) had lost 9.2% in New York and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) had closed 3.8% lower in London.

However mining stocks were on the rise in Australian morning trade, where lithium producer Orocobre (ASX: ORE) was up 10.5%, iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) had gained 8.4% and BHP (ASX: BHP) was 3.5% higher at the time of writing.