New Hampshire businesses fighting through the COVID-19 shutdown will soon have a new avenue for relief – this time from state government.
The state is using federal money to create a $400 million “Main Street Relief Fund,” and is accepting initial applications from businesses for the next two weeks, Gov. Chris Sununu announced Friday.
The money, funded via New Hampshire’s $1.2 billion allotment from the federal CARES act will be dispersed after New Hampshire businesses send in a form detailing their need. That form will require the businesses to submit information on size, how much they have suffered in losses, whether they have successfully received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, and other details.
After receiving that information, the state will then ask for a second round of applications from the same businesses and then divvy up the $400 million proportionally, Sununu said. The funds will be distributed through the Department of Revenue Administration all at once.
The announcement of the new fund comes as New Hampshire has already spent or allocated three quarters of the $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money it received last month, Sununu said Friday – after taking suggestions from lawmakers and making some decisions unilaterally.
That includes $100 million to hospitals and health care, $60 million to non profit organizations, $25 million to child care; $15 million to agriculture and dairy farms, and an expansion of the $300 weekly stipend to more classes of frontline workers.
As the state begins to do more antibody testing, which finds evidence that people have COVID-19 or have had it in the past, about 4% of people tested so far are positive.
If that figure holds up as more testing occurs, it would indicate that New Hampshire is far from having “herd immunity,” meaning enough people are protected by antibodies that the disease will not spread widely. It usually takes at resistance in at least 40% of the population – and often much more, depending on the disease – for herd immunity to begin to kick in.
Further, it is not yet known how much, if any, protection people have from COVID-19 after recovering from the disease, or how long any such immunity might last.
New Hampshire’s lawmakers say they’re returning for legislative sessions in June, but meeting outside of their respective chambers at the State House — the first time since the Civil War.
Instead of meeting at Representatives Hall, the 400-member House will meet at the Whittemore Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham on June 11. The arena is home to the UNH Wildcats Hockey and is used for other large events.
“We need a place that is large enough to allow us to socially distance while not being so large as to create its own logistical problems,” Speaker of the House Stephen Shurtleff said in an announcement Friday.
Shurtleff added, “We understand for many of you that coming to a House session in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic can be frightening.”
He said each member will have a temperature check prior to entering the arena. Also, per UNH guidelines, each member will be given an N-95 respirator mask. Members will have to wear them inside, Shurtleff said.
The 24-member Senate will meet in Representatives Hall. Lawmakers are working on a date.
The Legislature suspended activities in mid-March, when state emergency orders went into effect regarding the coronavirus.
(Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.)
