About 26,000 Denton County residents have filed unemployment claims in a three-week span amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to new unofficial statistics from the Texas Workforce Commission.

In the week ending April 4, 10,969 people filed for unemployment in Denton County, all or nearly all because of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent closures and restrictions by local and state governments. In the two previous weeks, more than 15,000 Denton County residents submitted their claims, according to the unofficial TWC statistics. In the two weeks before that, before COVID-19 began substantially affecting the way of life in the county, about 1,200 people submitted unemployment claims.

During the same time last year, weekly unemployment claims in Denton County usually totaled 300-400.

The current numbers are expected to continue to rise as the stay-at-home order remains in place. Nationwide and around Texas, people have reported long wait times and extreme difficulty in getting their phone calls answered to process their unemployment claims. The TWC has recommended call times, split up by area code, to better spread out the call volume. If you have had trouble getting through, don’t worry about losing out on funding. Coronavirus-related claims are eligible to be backdated.

For more information about how to file for unemployment, click here.