Rhode Island Allots $100 Million For Businesses, Unemployed Workers During 2-Week Pause

(AP) - Gov. Gina Raimondo announced Rhode Island has allocated $100 million to help Rhode Island businesses, and some workers, that the state has told to close for a two-week period because of the coronavirus.

Raimondo said Wednesday that every resident who receives unemployment insurance benefits during the pause will get an additional $200 for each of the two weeks. The Department of Labor and Training will start processing payments as early as Dec. 6, Raimondo said.

Business owners that must close during the pause will have to fill out a form and then, will be sent a check up to $50,000, based on past revenue. Applications will be available as of Friday at tax.ri.gov.

The "two-week pause" starts Monday and runs until Dec. 13. Raimondo announced the closures earlier this month to help control Rhode Island's surging coronavirus numbers. The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island was above 915 on Nov. 25, up from around 665 new cases per day on Nov. 11.