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

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 per 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.

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