Less than two weeks into a massive program to shore up the nation’s small businesses amid coronavirus shutdowns, Hawaii’s struggling companies are getting some $1.6 billion in government loans that could turn into life-sustaining grants.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) offered via the Small Business Administration (SBA) is a lifeline for some 8,420 local businesses and some 100,000 jobs. But time is of the essence — for businesses yet to receive approval of their loan applications, and for all on the cusp, trying to outlast the statewide shutdown.

The nationwide pot of money allocated for the PPP, part of the Congress-approved $2.2 trillion CARES Act, totals $350 billion — but it’s a pot quickly being drained. With more than 70% of funds disbursed as of Tuesday night, the fund could be depleted as early as today. Congress is working to “plus up” PPP with more money and wider accessibility — but it must get past squabbling on the Hill.

In Hawaii, more than 8,420 SBA loans via local banks and lenders have been approved to help businesses keep, or bring back, all their employees on payroll (about 20,000 PPP applications have been reported). The money can be used on such essentials as payroll, rent, utilities, mortgage interest and costs related to group health care benefits.

A critical benefit of the PPP — in addition to the immediate cash infusion, of course — is that the 1%-interest loan can convert to a straight-out grant if certain conditions are met by the company in the eight weeks following receipt of the check. Basically, the company applies to its lender at the end that two-month period for loan forgiveness, and is eligible if at least 75% of the forgiven amount can be shown to have gone toward payroll.

“Document, document, document,” advised Jane Sawyer, director of the Small Business Administration-Hawaii, during a Tuesday webinar of Save Hawaii Jobs and Businesses.

PPP’s goal is to help keep companies with 500 or fewer employees afloat and their workers productively tethered. For many in need, it’s sheer survival during the coronavirus pandemic that has closed businesses during a strict, albeit needed, “stay at home” directive across Hawaii, as well as in more than 40 other states. Getting through the next eight weeks is critical: The longer the lockdown lasts, the longer businesses will be squeezed without customers and revenue, lengthening odds for survival, let alone recovery.

Timing will be all. Hawaii’s lockdown started on March 23 and will last until at least April 30. The nationwide PPP program launched April 3 after guidelines were quickly cobbled together, and it’s been a first-come, first-served scramble. A week later, PPP eligibility was expanded to nonprofits and independent contractors and gig-economy workers, making competition for funds even fiercer.

Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment office has been slammed with at least 237,000 jobless claims since March 1. It’s hoped that many of those laid-off or furloughed workers can now be brought back by businesses buoyed by the PPP over the next eight weeks.

Clearly, though, with the deluge of Hawaii businesses applying for loans but coffers running dry, very many will be left without help. Congress must come to terms, quickly, on a proposed $250 billion additional allocation for PPP, or with a fourth coronavirus stimulus bill.

For now, the 8,420-plus companies here fortunate enough to have secured eight-week PPP reprieves, plus their staffers, can breathe a bit easier in the next two months. It’s a vital time to cross-train, to enhance and expand visions, to reinvest in valuable human resources. With any luck, the borrowed time will help businesses weather the worst of the coronavirus economic storm, and reposition them to emerge from lockdown — battered and bruised, perhaps, but stable and strong enough to help rebuild Hawaii’s collective community.