A federal response will be neither fast enough nor big enough to help all the businesses that need it, in time to save them. Washington’s effort must be supplemented by local responses. Thankfully, these are already under way.

Shutdowns mandated by the coronavirus are a pending apocalypse for small businesses, which employ 48 percent of American workers. The average small business has only 27 days’ worth of operating costs in cash reserves, with many holding far less than that. Businesses that either can’t reopen or are suffering a big drop in revenue will soon be insolvent. Some have already announced that they will be shutting down.