RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper says that the first coronavirus-related unemployment payments will be paid starting next week as the state is flooded with tens of thousands of claims.

Cooper issued a statement Sunday saying that the state has received approximately 270,000 claims in the past two weeks, most of them related to COVID-19 as businesses close or scale back. The state reported about 22,000 claims on Saturday alone. By comparison, the state received about 7,500 claims in the first two weeks of March.

“Thousands of workers have lost jobs, but their bills don’t stop. My administration is working overtime to get unemployment checks out now. We’ll keep pushing every day for more state and federal help to save our workers and their families,” Cooper said.

North Carolina health officials reported that there were around 1,000 positive cases statewide as of Sunday morning, including four deaths and about 90 hospitalizations.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.