Approximately 80% of the state’s restaurant industry workers have been laid off due to the closing of high risk businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.

That's according to Steve Chucri, CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association. He said a newly created grant program is helping to ease the burden of those who are laid off. “We have received just under 700 applications, and we’ve processed 600 of those applications and have approved dollars in the amount of $110,000.”

Grants are capped at $500 and Chucri said there’s no red tape for the grant approval process, but there are some limiters such as the amount of time someone has worked in the restaurant industry, which employs nearly 230,000 people in Arizona.

In 2019, the restaurant economy in the state had sales that totaled $13.4 billion. 

→ Read The Latest News On The Coronavirus Disease