New York City needs $7.4 billion in federal aid amid coronavirus: mayor

[April 27, 2020]    (Reuters) - New York City needs a $7.4 billion in federal aid to offset economic losses from the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday, urging President Donald Trump to push his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate to back more relief funding for states and cities.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks to the media during a press conference in temporary hospital located at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Queens borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

"The federal government must make us whole for us to be able to be in a position to restart," De Blasio, a Democrat, said in an interview on Fox News. "If New York City is not whole, it will drag down the entire region, and it will hold up the entire national economic restart."

(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.