NEW ORLEANS —
The coronavirus disease is not only taking a toll on the health of New Orleans residents, but it is also leaving the city financially strapped.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Thursday that the city now faces a $150 million deficit as her administration prepares temporary morgues to handle the rising death toll.
Cantrell said that the $2 trillion federal stimulus bill leaves out New Orleans because the city has less than 500,000 resident minimum requirements to apply for direct federal relief. According to The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate, that means that the city will only be able to apply for aid to cover the money it directly spends battling the virus, and not for money to cover economic impacts from loss of conventions, festivals and sales revenue.
“That doesn’t make me feel like we’re cared about if that’s all that’s going to come down from the federal government to the city of New Orleans,” Cantrell said.
“We’re going to be relentless to make sure that the city of New Orleans gets her fair share based on this city being ground zero for this virus,” Cantrell said.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that 224 Orleans Parish residents had died from COVID-19 and another 5,242 people in the parish have tested positive for the virus.
Click here to read more from The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.
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