A $45 million pot of state aid meant to offer a lifeline to businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession has seen more than 31,000 applicants—nearly half of which won’t get any money under the program.

That’s according to Tim Sullivan, head of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which oversees the grant program. Between 16,000 and 18,000 businesses will receive money, applicants will be notified by the weekend, and money will go “out the door in the next couple weeks,” he said.

“If we don’t get it out by July, I’d be surprised,” the NJEDA chief executive said Tuesday afternoon at Gov. Phil Murphy’s daily COVID-19 press conference at the Trenton War Memorial.

The global pandemic and government response have included the mandated closure of tens of thousands of businesses, grinding commerce and the economy to a halt, and driving up unemployment.

Grant applications maxed out with 20,000 applicants just four hours after they went live on June 9, Sullivan said. Many of the applicants who did not make the cut would likely be waitlisted until another round of funding is made available.

Back in April, the first round of funding from the NJEDA ran dry of its $5 million just over an hour after applications went live.

As of June 15, a total of $10 million was awarded under that first pot of money to 3,110 local businesses up and down the state, including bars and restaurants, spas, hair and nail salons, florists, motels and hotels, delis, liquor stores and dry-cleaners.

The Trump administration awarded $50 million for the NJEDA to use—$5 million of which is going toward applicants waitlisted from the first round.

Sullivan said on Tuesday that the $5 million is “plus or minus a couple hundred thousand dollars out the door.”

Demand also soared for the NJEDA’s $10 million small business loan program, with 3,260 businesses applying for a combined $228.7 million from the state’s much smaller pot of money.

Twenty loan applications were approved for a total of $1.06 million, seven of which were closed totaling $443,000 and nine of which are in the process of closing, totaling $469,000, according to NJEDA spokesperson Virginia Pellersin. Another 32 applications are being underwritten.