California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund on Monday announced another series of actions designed to support policyholders and workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including doubling the size of its newly announced Essential Business Support Fund announced earlier this week to $50 million.

Since the fund was announced last week, State Fund said it has received more than 700 applications for COVID-19 workplace safety support funds. The first several payments, all at the maximum $10,000 reimbursement, were sent to qualified applicants on Monday.

State Fund also announced it’s creating a $50-million Returning California to Work COVID-19 Safety Protocol Fund. The fund will operate in a similar way to the Essential Business Support Fund, but is designed to help businesses that were not deemed essential by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order after he removes statewide stay-at-home restrictions.

The fund is intended to provide grants to qualified policyholders to help defray the costs of safety-related expenses, planned or already incurred, related to protecting their workforces from COVID-19. Individual grants can total up to $10,000 or two times the policyholder’s premium, whichever is less. Applications for this fund will be made available at StateFundCA.com after statewide stay-at-home restrictions are lifted.

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