Michael Shawki looked at his thigh and injected his final dose of methotrexate into his leg.

"Simple as that," Shawki, 37, said.

The two-time colon cancer survivor is now out of his prescriptions, and out of a job -- meaning he can no longer afford to pay for his life-sustaining medication.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to closures of restaurants and businesses nationwide, Shawki was laid off as the manager of a bakery chain in New York City last month.

Now, Shawki's survival, like thousands in the United States, depends on the arrival of an individual stimulus check under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

"People are living check to check already when they're working," Shawki told CNN. "What do you think when that income goes away? You think they're going to be able to survive on a few weeks? No. I can't make pills just magically appear. I can't walk through a pharmacy, tell them my situation, and get free meds. That's not the world we live in."

Shawki applied for unemployment, but said his request is still pending. Since he applied, he said he's called the Department of Labor's unemployment line "75 times a day" but never gets through.

The Internal Revenue Service said it sent out the first wave of stimulus checks to Americans on Saturday. The distributions are part of the $2.2 trillion economic relief package passed by Congress in March. Under the economic relief package, individuals are due up to $1,200 and couples will receive up to $2,400 -- plus $500 per child.

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