Coronavirus: New York, Washington, California declared national disaster areas by Trump, as US Senate fails to advance economic stimulus package
- Nearly one-third of Americans have been ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the pandemic
- Senate Democrats block legislation on an economic stimulus and relief package expected to involve as much as US$2 trillion for companies and ordinary Americans
The news came as the US Senate failed to advance a massive economic stimulus package amid partisan bickering and as local officials in New York, site of the largest concentration of US deaths, criticised Trump for not moving faster in providing medical equipment and manpower.
“I can’t be blunt enough. If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press before the president’s late-afternoon briefing.
By Monday morning, the US Federal Reserve said it would widen an emergency lending programme that had been announced a week earlier to keep credit flowing to individuals and businesses.
The Fed’s lending programme will be expanded to include some corporate and municipal debt and makes its purchases of US Treasuries and other government-backed debt unlimited. The rate-setting body earlier said that it would buy at least $500 billion of Treasury securities and at least $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities.