HILLSBOROUGH, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- New Jersey will allocate $100 million in COVID-19 relief funds to support the state's small businesses, restaurants and food banks, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.
At a news conference outside Flounder Brewing Company in Hillsborough Tuesday afternoon, Murphy said the state would put $100 million in additional CARES Act funding toward keeping its economy moving.
The funding will be broken down as follows, the governor said:
• $70 million will to go restaurants, "microbusinesses" with no more than five employees, and other small businesses through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's Small Business Emergency Assistance Grant Program
• $10 million will go toward helping small businesses buy personal protective equipment through the NJEDA's Small and Micro Business PPE Access Program
• $15 million will go toward supporting renters through the Department of Community Affairs' COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program
• $5 million will go toward supporting food banks and "other hunger relief efforts"
Half of the $70 million will be "targeted to help our food service industry stay open and stay viable," Murphy noted.
"We still have so much we have to do together," he said. "But so long as we stay together and stay focused there is nothing that New Jersey cannot do."
Murphy on Tuesday reported 993 new positive COVID-19 test results, bringing the state's cumulative total to 215,085.
He also reported seven new COVID-19 deaths, pushing the state's death toll to 14,394.
As of Monday, 649 people in the state were hospitalized with confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases, 160 of whom were in intensive care and 58 of whom were on ventilators.
"Make no mistake: we are not out of the woods yet," he said.
