The Hospital Emergency Loan Program, an effort to provide short-term financial relief to hospitals, is expected to help ensure they have sufficient personnel, equipment and personal protective equipment.

In an effort to provide small businesses faced with the imminent prospect of bankruptcy due to COVID-19, lenders hurried to comply with incoming guidelines from the Small Business Administration that qualify them to make federally-guaranteed loans to small businesses, to the extent that 75% of those funds are used to keep workers on payroll and 25% on overhead costs.

The GIANT Co. of Carlisle has established a $250,000 emergency fund to help support small businesses in Pennsylvania’s food supply chain that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Creditsafe USA, an Allentown-based company that provides company credit reports for businesses throughout the globe, has now created a COVID-19 Impact Score. The new scoring system is free and designed to help businesses identify the risks the coronavirus epidemic poses to their bottom line.

Modifications to the U.S. tax code under the CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, are designed to help companies hold onto capital and retain employees until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, federal officials and local accounting professionals say.

Federal officials are working with local lenders to help small businesses pay the bills and keep workers on furloughed status — a kind of induced economic freeze — so they are positioned to make a successful economic rebound on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To help business owners struggling to recover from COVID-19, an Easton nonprofit is collaborating with the city and another organization to create a relief fund of $300,000 in emergency capital.

Treasury Department officials confirmed Tuesday they are asking congressional leaders for an additional $250 billion for companies to retain workers as the initial $350 billion allocated by the CARES Act is threatening to dry up after going live four days ago.

The list of financial institutions affiliated with PA CARE Package, a program slated to facilitate the rollout of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in Pennsylvania, is growing and now includes banks from across the country with branch locations in the commonwealth, as well as some based in the midstate.

One of the provisions of the 2020 CARES Act is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) where businesses will receive loans meant to help support payroll during the period February 15, through June 30, with 100% federally guaranteed loans, if they maintain their payroll during this emergency.