A website for small businesses to apply for grants to recover coronavirus-related expenses goes live Thursday afternoon, with the possibility for owners to get up to $25,000, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday.
“There is some pretty big news today. That has pretty much been the case over the past few months,” Reeves said in opening his daily coronavirus briefing.
Reeves said there are a lot of rules and regulations on the grant, and encourages small business owners to visit backtobusinessms.org to see if their business qualifies.
“As with most things in government, there are a lot of rules, in fact, there are probably too many rules,” he said. “If you want to maximize your money, I encourage you to go to the website and get familiar with those rules.”
Reeves said small businesses can apply for the grant to receive $15,000 plus $500 for every employee. Business owners can submit receipts for anything they bought relating to the pandemic, Reeves said.
The governor also addressed the status of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security’s trust fund for unemployment checks, which mostly come from taxes on small businesses.
The department asked the Legislature for a $500 million infusion for the fund, and Reeves said that without it businesses could face a 10% unemployment tax increase to replenish it.
Reeves said the state had one of the most robust unemployment trust funds in the country before the virus, so he fears what will happen in other states.
Reeves also lifted the curfew on restaurants and bars that serve alcohol effective Monday despite a plateau in numbers in COVID-19 infections.
“We recognized the cost of continued shutdowns and we recognize the cost of heavy regulations,” he said. “This should not be taken that the risk of COVID-19 is gone. COVID-19 is still here. My hope would have been that we had no restrictions in the state of Mississippi in June but that is just not what the data suggests.”
The curfew originally required bars and restaurants serving alcohol to close at 10 p.m., which severely cut the hours of most employees.
Reeves also announced that fitness centers and reception halls can go up to 50% capacity — up from 25% — as long as they follow all of the other virus regulations, and arenas can go up to 25% capacity, all of which will be effective Monday.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the virus is still present and people should not let their guards down just because of loosening restrictions.
“Everybody is looking for a free pass on this thing. … There is nothing that is going to make it go away until we have an effective vaccine,” he said.
Many of the cases the state sees now are in younger demographics, and Reeves and Dobbs both linked these to Memorial Day parties and recent protests. They said many young people contract the virus in the community and bring it home to their parents and grandparents.
“If you are over 65, avoid your grandkids unless they know how to behave,” Dobbs said.
The Mississippi Department of Health reported 374 new cases and 21 deaths Wednesday for a total of 18,483 cases and 868 total deaths. Four of the 21 deaths were added from prior dates through death certificates.
Pike County rose to 213 cases with no new deaths, and Lincoln County rose to 314. Amite County has 67 cases, Franklin has 29, Lawrence has 113, and Walthall and Wilkinson both had 85.
There are 107 outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
Data as of June 2 shows there were two Pike County facilities that had a total of 10 active cases among residents and 15 among employees, but just 15 long-term care facility cases were reported for Pike County on Wednesday.
The chart breaking down cases in long-term care facility had not been updated since last week.
