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There is no shortage of Oklahomans who have either been laid off, forced to take furloughs or close their businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials said Tuesday that more than 135,000 initial claims for unemployment compensation have been filed with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission just the past three weeks.

Questions are being asked by many of those claimants and by others who haven’t yet filed about the program, how it works and what types of assistance it can provide.

To answer some of those, the agency plans to host a virtual town hall for claimants and the general public at 1:00 p.m. Friday.