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Next phase of Pinellas CARES for business set to launch

Margie Manning

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Pinellas County businesses that have been negatively impacted by Covid-19 could learn more soon about the second phase of a county program to help them.

Details of the next phase of Pinellas CARES for businesses will be unveiled Monday, officials told the Board of County Commissioners Thursday morning.

The first round of the program, which provided $5,000 grants for small businesses, closed on June 30. From May 4 through Aug. 24:

• 5,223 completed applications were received.

• 3,241 checks were issued.

• $16.205 million was distributed to eligible businesses with approved applications


Related: Here are the businesses that got funding from the first round of Pinellas CARES


The county tapped $170 million in federal funding to provide the grants.

County commissioners also got a progress report on other Pinellas CARES funding initiatives, including individual and family assistance. Since launching the program April 28, there have been nearly 6,000 payments and more than $8 million in funding has been awarded, said Aubrey Phillips, strategic performance manager.

Almost 60 nonprofits who help residents meet basic needs such as housing and food assistance have applied for funding from a Pinellas nonprofit partnership fund established on Aug. 7. The review committee for those applications begins work today, Phillips said.

A grant program for licensed childcare facilities also launched on Aug. 7. Through Wednesday, 146 grants were approved, totaling $980,000, Phillips said.

The county has invested $1.5 million in ensuring it has a stockpile of personal protective equipment to protect front-line workers against Covid-19, and spent $4.4 million to support Covid-19 testing and contact tracing. It plans to spend $2 million on a workforce training program to help people who have been displaced from their jobs.

Click here for more information on all the Pinellas CARES programs.

County commissioners separately extended the state of local emergency through Sept. 4, and also kept in place an ordinance that requires people wear a face covering while in most indoor public places within Pinellas County.

As of Thursday morning, there’s been a cumulative total of 19,681 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the county, an increase of 86 cases since Wednesday. The rate of people who get a test and test positive has been about 3.4 percent over the past seven days.

A total of 641 people have died in Pinellas since early March, with six additional deaths reported Thursday. Fifty-four Covid-19 deaths have been reported in Pinellas County in the past week.

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