Many small businesses opted to forgo applying for a payroll protection loan, reports Motley Fool. 

When COVID-19 emerged as a domestic threat back in March, local officials acted quickly, and that involved shuttering non-essential businesses in an effort to keep people in their homes and curb the spread of the virus. But while imposing lockdowns made sense from a health perspective, it was detrimental from an economic standpoint, as unemployment shot up overnight and countless small businesses began hemorrhaging cash in the absence of incoming revenue.