CNBC reports that Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said that the U.S. may need several hundred billion dollars a month in “disaster relief” to keep the economy afloat as a raging coronavirus outbreak continues to suppress prospects for workers and businesses.

“We really are still very much in the disaster relief stage,” he told CNBC.

“A lot of people are going to be out of work, a lot of businesses are going to be stressed. We need to just make life tolerable for them,” he added.

Krugman said it’s difficult to put a total price tag on an ideal relief package for the U.S. But he stressed that a “really, really big” one is needed given that the U.S. hasn’t managed to contain the virus.

“We’re still 11 million jobs down from where we were before this thing hit and all of those people are without wages, state local governments are in extreme financial distress, thousands of businesses — maybe hundreds of thousands — are on the verge of collapse,” he said.

“So we need a lot to keep this thing afloat.”  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has won his reelection bid for a seventh term, said on Wednesday that the additional relief package will be his priority when the chamber reconvenes next week.

Still, Krugman said there’s no indication that McConnell would agree to a large relief bill or extend enhanced unemployment benefits which have been the “most important policy” to cushion the pandemic’s economic impact.