Much of the initial money in the U.S. government’s lending program for small businesses went to parts of the country that were not as hard hit by the coronavirus, data on the economic rescue plan shows nyti.ms/3chmgQ0
Businesses in the Midwest got an outsize share during the first round of loans. Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota were below the national median for cases of the virus per capita, and none had imposed statewide lockdowns as the outbreak began to spread. nyti.ms/3chmgQ0 
Harder-hit states like California and New York claimed a larger share of the money in the most recent round of the program. That’s in part because big banks, which were slow to lend when the program began, started issuing more loans. nyti.ms/3chmgQ0
Small businesses are those with 500 or fewer employees. The coronavirus stimulus program was created to help businesses pay their workers for an 8-week period even if their doors remained closed. nyti.ms/3chmgQ0
In 2016, the last year the government released an annual estimate, there were nearly 31 million small businesses operating in the U.S., employing almost 60 million people. nyti.ms/3chmgQ0
The U.S. lending program funneled many of the earliest funds to places that were not as hard hit by the coronavirus. Some economists argued that the early stages of the program functioned as a cash infusion for less affected firms. nyti.ms/3chmgQ0
