Sen. Lankford Holds Another Telephone Town Hall, Elaborates On COVID-19 Situation

Elected officials are working to get answers for small and large business owners applying for loans and grants starting Friday.

During a telephone town hall Thursday, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford told listeners the loans and grants are a way to help business owners pay their employees staying home during the COVID pandemic.

Lankford stressed the new law is not a buyout for businesses and large business owners who get a loan will have to pay it back. He said business owners can apply through any bank of credit union starting Friday.

"The way that's designed is we know there is a lot of people that want to apply for unemployment insurance right now but literally the system can't handle as many people as are applying for unemployment insurance. So the way to be able to help solve that is to open up every bank and every credit union to provide assistance to everyone in those businesses so individuals can stay connected to their work," said Senator Lankford.

Senator Lankford said the first thing they're looking at in terms of getting back to normal is how many new cases are being reported each day.

They're also considering how many people are hospitalized because of the virus and they're tracking the number COVID 19 deaths.

During a telephone town hall meeting today - Lankford told Oklahomans that it's only after we see all three of those numbers steadily decrease before states and cities will open again.

"The key features that we're really looking for is do we know how to treat it, do we know how to test it and do how many people have it or have been around it that have already had it and they're immune to it now, and then do we know how to get a vaccine on board," said Senator Lankford.