The U.S. Small Business Administration said 7,900 more small businesses have received Paycheck Protection Program loans

The U.S. Small Business Administration said 7,900 more small businesses have received Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling $485.8 million through the federal program’s second round of funding.

Overall, more than 15,700 small businesses in West Virginia have received low-interest loans totaling $1.837 billion, with $485.85 million being disbursed during the second round, ranking the state 42nd out of 50 states in amount received. As expected, California, the country’s largest state, received $35.8 billion and was followed by New York at $18.79 billion and Florida at $13.41 billion. Overall, more than 4.2 million small businesses in the U.S. received loans totaling more than $531 billion.

The SBA did not have a specific breakdown for where the federal PPP dollars went in West Virginia, but said nationally the average size loan in the second round fell to $73,000, something national experts have attributed to the 15% jobless rate in the U.S.

“SBA provided that statistical information on the Paycheck Protection Program loans in an effort to keep the public informed of the assistance and actions both it and the thousands of lenders across the country are taking at this difficult time,” SBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Communications Director Chris Hatch said in a statement to The Dominion Post. “At this time, the agency is focusing its efforts on assisting small businesses during this unprecedented disruption to the economy due to the coronavirus outbreak.”

“In the near future, we will be able to turn our efforts to providing loan-specific data to the public, but hope that all understand the need for the Agency to focus its efforts on fulfilling the urgent needs of small businesses,” Hatch said.

The PPP program, launched in April, is a loan designed to help small businesses keep employees on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SBA will forgive the loans if employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the funds are used for necessities such as rent, payroll, mortgages and utilities. If these requirements can’t be met, then the loan matures in two years and carries an interest rate of 1%.

More than $120 billion is available in funding at this time. The PPP program ends June 30.