New York's mayor Bill De Blasio has asked US president Donald Trump if he was "going to save New York City or are you telling New York City to drop dead?" during a stoush over federal funding in the fight against the coronavirus.

Mr De Blasio accused Mr Trump – who was born in Queens – of betraying his fellow New Yorkers by failing to push for billions of dollars in additional federal aid needed to help the city deal with the COVID-19 economic crisis .

He criticised Mr Trump's US$2tn coronavirus relief package signed last month, claiming New York only received $1.4bn from the stimulus.

Pedestrians wear face masks while walking in Battery Park on Saturday, April 18, 2020, in the Manhattan borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The mayor had harsh words for Mr Trump, saying both he and Vice President Mike Pence have ignored his overtures on the stimulus funds.

"Right now you are failing to protect the very people you grew up around," Mr de Blasio said of Mr Trump. "When New York City is in need, where are you?"

Mr de Blasio even referenced an infamous tabloid headline — "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" — from 1975 when then-President Gerald Ford denied assistance to spare New York from bankruptcy.

"Are you going to save New York City," the mayor said, "or are you saying to New York City 'drop dead?'"

New York's governor Andrew Cuomo chimed in by saying the states needed money from the federal government to ramp up testing that has not been provided so far.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio passes out bags at the Healthcare Heroes Hospital Delivery at Coney Island Hospital on Thursday, April 16, 2020, in New York. (Brian Ach/AP Images for NYC Healthcare Heroes)

"You have the president saying 15 times, 'It's up to the governors, it's up to the governors, it's up to the governors.' And then they're going to pass a piece of legislation that gives you know what to states: zero, zilch, nada, niente," Mr Cuomo said.

The coronavirus death toll in New York dropped again , a sign that Mr Cuomo said Sunday means the state is "on the other side of the plateau" and that ongoing social distancing practices are working to stem the spread of the virus.

Mr Cuomo said 507 people died on Saturday, down 33 from the previous day and by 271 since last Monday. Other indicators were going in the right direction, the governor said. Hospitalisations were down by more than 750, to 16,213.

But Mr Cuomo and Mr de Blasio maintained their warnings that people in New York City and the rest of the state need to stay vigilant to curb the spread of the virus.

In this March 2, 2020 file photo New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Mayor Bill de Blasio discuss the state and city's preparedness for the spread of coronavirus at a news conference in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

"We showed that we can control the beast and when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate, but this is only halftime," Mr Cuomo said Sunday at a briefing. "We still have to make sure that we keep that beast under control, we keep that infection rate down, we keep that hospitalization rate down as we all get very eager to get on with life and move on."

Nearly 14,000 New Yorkers in all have died since the state's first coronavirus case was reported March 1, according to state data. The state total doesn't include more than 4,000 New York City deaths that were blamed on the virus on death certificates but weren't confirmed by a lab test.

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