This afternoon Governor Henry McMaster, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Lt. Gov. Pamela S. Evette participated in a business roundtable hosted by the Upstate SC Alliance concerning COVID-19.
Gov. McMaster referred to the session as delightful and reported local business owners are feeling confident about reopening.
"Of course as Sec Ross mentioned upstairs, we have 2.5 million new jobs in May in the U.S. That's a part of the effort we've heard from the secretary and the president as well as others," Gov. McMaster said.
He also said that even though the virus is still here business cannot be restricted.
"We need to reopen. We need to be careful. We need to be sure to let people know that the virus is still here, but you can't restrict business. Business is part of public health: economic health, as well as physical health, mental health, emotional health," Gov. McMaster said.
Secretary Ross has high hopes for the economic bounce back this summer.
"I think we're going to have a very sharp V shaped recovery with June or maybe July being the very bottom... This is just a hint of the recovery," Ross said.
"In terms of South Carolina, the Payroll Protection Program made about 58,851 loans and they totaled $5.6 billion. That's about $96,000 per loan, so again it went mostly to the smaller business that desperately needed it," Ross said.
Gov. McMaster said South Carolina's business activity is proof the Palmetto State is doing better than most states.
Secretary Ross agreed that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.
"We're on our way back out as long as there isn't some new weird phenomenon that occurs," Ross said.
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