The county will stop accepting applications to a program created to provide funding assistance to business during the COVID-19 emergency, according to a press release.

Applications to the Public Health Emergency Grant program will no longer be taken after 5 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

The program was designed to provide up to $75,000 in assistance to eligible entities that can demonstrate a “significant financial loss.”

Businesses and nonprofits with 100 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees are eligible for the grants, which must be used for employee wages and benefits, taxes, debt, rent or other operating losses during the emergency.

The County Council originally approved $20 million in funding for the program, with $5 million dedicated to local restaurants and storefront retailers. The council voted on Tuesday to add another $5 million for those businesses.

More than 6,200 applications have been submitted and are currently being reviewed.

Other forms of assistance to businesses may be available and can be researched at the following links:

https://reliefwizard.net/

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/Biz-Resources/covid19/

https://thinkmoco.com/covid-19-resources

Questions about the PHEG program can be sent to [email protected]

Image from Wikimedia Commons licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.