Westchester Survey Shows Coronavirus Impact On Business

WHITE PLAINS, NY — A survey by Westchester County's Office of Economic Development shed some light on how dire the economic circumstances are for the county's businesses. County Executive George Latimer talked about the findings Tuesday during his daily news conference.

He said the survey was of chambers of commerce and businesses in the county to get a sense of the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Of the businesses who responded, 58 percent said they will lose 75 percent to 100 percent of revenue, Latimer said.

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"That is a dramatic economic impact," he said. More than half of the businesses were retail establishments and personal and administrative services.

Sixty percent were either solo entrepreneurs or businesses with less than five employees.

Other findings include:

• 85 percent need financial assistance
• 64 percent applied for Small Business Administration loans
• 39 percent need help with the application process

A quarter of the businesses usually normally have annual gross revenue under $100,000, while 20 percent report more than $1 million in annual gross revenue.

Almost two-thirds, or 65 percent, of the businesses have been around for more than 10 years, and a majority have part-time employees.

Latimer said 70 percent of the businesses say they need help marketing or changing their business model to keep customers and clients.

Regarding new coronavirus cases, Latimer said the numbers released for Tuesday, April 28 show the county has 28,245 positive cases, with 8,054 active cases.

He said the number of active cases has dropped to below where the county was a month ago.

While a few weeks ago there were 1,200 people in the hospital because of the new coronavirus, the number for Tuesday was 868.

Latimer said that, while neither the active cases or hospitalizations were down dramatically, he said it shows the sacrifice of staying at home and social distancing has had a positive impact.

There were 983 deaths reported Tuesday, an increase of 21 over Monday.

To date, more than 89,000 Westchester residents have been tested for the new coronavirus — about 8.9 percent of the county's population.

Below is a map of the number of confirmed cases by community.

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