North Carolina is reporting another heavy day of unemployment claims as nonessential businesses close or scale back operations during the COVID-19 outbreak.

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The North Carolina Department of Commerce said in a news release that the state had received more than 26,000 unemployment claims on Friday. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the state typically received about 3,000 a week.

The state has received nearly 246,000 claims from March 16 through March 27. All but about 30,000 of them are related to COVID-19.

By comparison, the state received about 100,000 claims received per month during the Great Recession about a decade ago, according to state officials.