San Francisco, Apr 10 (IANS): San Francisco Mayor London Breed has signed legislation to fund new grants and loans to provide immediate financial relief for small businesses struggling as a result of Covid-19.

The $10.9 million grant program will focus on helping storefront businesses that have received little to no federal or city funding, businesses that have been forced to close for six months or longer due to state and local regulations, long-established businesses, and those in high need neighbourhoods, an announcement said on Friday.

This latest small business grant program is the largest to date and will provide much-needed support as businesses seek to recover from the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, it added.

This new grant program will provide immediate relief to help stabilise more than 1,400 small businesses by offering grants of between $5,000 and $25,000 based on the number of employees that each employer had before the pandemic.

"While it's exciting that we've been able to reopen more and more parts of our economy, we know that our economic recovery isn't going to happen overnight.

"Our small business community has been hurting for more than a year, and they need our continued support," said Breed.

In total, 57.6 per cent of Covid-19 small business relief grants administered by the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development have been awarded to women-owned businesses and 67.6 per cent to minority-owned businesses, according to the announcement.