This Saturday, I wanted to share some statistics about the status of the federal response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as some general information about the status of the virus in general, both in North Carolina and across the country.
The Paycheck Protection Program continues to put dollars into the hands of small business owners to help them make payrolls. As of Thursday afternoon, the Small Business Administration has already processed $125 billion in loans for 30,000 small business borrowers via 3,900 participating lenders. Even with all the challenges, including an antiquated government computer system, it is an unprecedented success for a program that was initiated just a week ago. To provide perspective, this is a computer infrastructure that processed about $23 billion in all of 2019 as compared to the billions per hour being processed right now.
Estimates indicate the Paycheck Protection Program has already saved an estimated 12.3 million jobs.
We learned Thursday that 6.6 million more Americans filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the total number of unemployment claims to nearly 17 million during the last three weeks. These numbers are staggering — but would have been far worse without the 12.3 million jobs saved by implementing the PPP.
More than 2.1 million tests for COVID-19 have been completed — the most of any country in the world — and we're conducting more than 100,000 new tests each day.
U.S. military has deployed thousands of personnel across the country to build 23 temporary hospitals with more than 16,000 beds, relieving the pressure on our local hospitals and healthcare providers in the nation's worst hotspots.
FEMA's Project Airbridge has delivered more than 300 million pieces of Personal Protective Equipment from around the globe, and we've begun transporting 60 sterilization systems to 10 different cities that can each sterilize up to 80,000 masks each day.
Here is the situation in North Carolina, as of 11 a.m. Friday:
We currently have 3,908 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Carolina.
57,645 tests have been conducted within the state so far.
423 individuals are currently hospitalized
91 of North Carolina's 100 counties have seen cases.
74 deaths across the state have been attributed to COVID-19
For today's "good news" story, I want to highlight Mary Thacker, who set up the "Masks for NHRMC Heroes" Facebook page to organize volunteers to sew and donate face masks for workers at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Within just a few days, the page already has nearly 500 followers as more and more people volunteer their time and skills to fighting this outbreak.
Though this is a very trying time with economic disruptions unprecedented in size and scope, God’s uplifting hand is always there. I hope you and your family have a happy, safe and blessed Easter.
