ST. PAUL -- Minnesotans are among the first in the country to receive additional unemployment benefits from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During Wednesday's daily briefing, DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said as of March 29th, people who apply for unemployment will also qualify for an extra 600 dollars through the CARES Act.

This is so important for workers who need that money to get by during this time, and as the governor said a moment ago, it's actually, when you take the amount of money that Minnesotans are getting through our typical program and add that $600 on top of it, many Minnesota workers are actually making more on unemployment insurance during this time than they normally would in their day-to-day work.

The funding started up last night, and so far Grove says they have processed around 200,000 applications for a total near 115 million dollars.

Grove says he expects the payments to reach people later this week.

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