Congressman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., spoke words of encouragement as he hosted a teletownhall that offered a broad spectrum of information about the COVID-19 pandemic to his constituents.

“All of us have worked very hard to contain this,” he said. “Don't lose faith. Don't lose hope.”

According to Kelly, there have been 12 deaths and 384 confirmed cases within his district, which encompasses all of Erie County, Crawford County, Mercer County and Lawrence County, as well as part of Butler County.

Kelly himself was stricken with COVID-19, but recovered.

The teletownhall featured representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Association, the state Secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry Gerard Oleksiak and from the Federal Trade Commission.

“It's an impressive panel, and they've assembled here today and tonight to answer your questions,” Kelly said.

Each gave a brief overview of the roles of their department or organization the types of programs they have available to help people through the pandemic. People asking questions were only identified by first name, and a residence was not always given.

A man named Charlie called to ask about the status of stimulus checks. He was told that his check was likely on its way to the bank account where his 2018 tax return was direct deposited.

“That's excellent and I thank you immensely, and I thank the congressmen immensely for making this information available,” Charlie said.

Mark from Sharpesville asked Kelly about his thoughts on President Donald Trump's comments about ingesting disinfectants to kill the virus from earlier in the day. Kelly said he appreciated the interaction, but he wanted to keep the focus on government assistance.

“Tonight's call isn't about critiquing President Donald Trump,” Kelly said. “But, tonight, I wanted to focus on helping people.”

Shannon of New Castle asked a number of questions relating to her and her partner's businesses.

“I have been closed since March 13,” she said. “I am really feeling abandoned by our government and being able to get any answers or support for our financial situation.”

Her main questions involved understanding the SBA's system for its two available loan programs, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the Paycheck Protection Program.

SBA spokeswoman Kelly Hunt told Shannon that as long as her application was accepted and as long as she received a confirmation number, then funding should be on its way.

Hunt also mentioned in a later response the SBA will be accepting new applications for the PPP loan starting 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Stan of Boyers called to ask about his unemployment benefits. He said he was on unemployment before the pandemic, and was hours away from returning to work when he was called off.

“I haven't received my benefits since then,” he said.

Stan said he has struggled to find out if he should open a new unemployment claim, especially since he ran out of benefits just before returning to work.

A representative told him that he would be a candidate for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which extends those unemployment benefits for another 13 weeks. Benefits would be retroactive, he was told.

A number of questions were about unemployment, which has had multiple hiccups since the pandemic struck.

Oleksiak gave some brief statistics to explain why unemployment benefits may be lagging behind. He said around 40,000 new unemployment claims were filed just before the pandemic. Less than a week into the pandemic, the office saw more than 1 million claims and recently saw claims reach more than 1.6 million.

“We have been very busy,” Oleksiak said. “I know some people have experienced difficulty and delays in trying to reach out to us, and that is largely due to volume.”

A woman named Kim is an employer. She said she received a PPP loan, but she's concerned that she won't be able to reach the mark of recalling employees to work.

“About 25 percent of my employees are making more on unemployment,” Kim said. “What if they quit, then I won't be able to reach my employee number to have my loan forgiven?”

Kim was told that when an employee is called back by an employer and offered to work, then they are no longer considered unemployed. If they refuse at that point, then they quit, and they would not be able to collect unemployment.

Kim was also advised that if people still decide to quit, then she could always hire more people to meet the numbers. She was also told that she may receive some pro-rated forgiveness if she is close to reaching the number of employees she needs to rehire.

Kelly and his staff invited anyone with questions to call his Butler office at 724-282-2557.

“We're there to serve you,” Kelly said.