Chinese hackers have stolen tens of millions of dollars worth of U.S. COVID relief benefits since 2020, the Secret Service said on Monday.

The Secret Service declined to provide any additional details but confirmed a report by NBC News that said the Chinese hacking team that is reportedly responsible is known within the security research community as APT41 or Winnti.

APT41 is a prolific cybercriminal group that had conducted a mix of government-backed cyber intrusions and financially motivated data breaches, according to experts.

Chinese government-affiliated hackers stole more than $20 million in COVID-19 relief funds dedicated to small businesses and unemployment benefits, the Secret Service revealed.

The theft was discovered as part of a larger investigation in which $286 million was recovered in August, traced back to 15,000 fake accounts created at a Texas bank. Approximately $87 billion in Economic Injury Disaster Loans have gone missing since the federal program was formed in the COVID-19 pandemic's early stages.

Chinese government-linked hackers have stolen at least $20 million in US government coronavirus relief funds, a US Secret Service spokesperson told CNN Monday – the first time the agency has connected Covid-19 fraud to hackers affiliated with a foreign government.

The hackers raided unemployment insurance funds and Small Business Administration loan money in more than a dozen US states, said Secret Service spokesperson Justine Whelan.

In the wake of a devastating pandemic, millions of people are dead and many more have had their lives upended. Many of those who survive, worn down by a sense of futility in their work and by the impassable gap between the wealthy and everyone else, refuse to return to their old jobs or quit en masse. Tired of being overworked and underpaid, they feel they deserve a better life.

This could be a story about today, but it is also the pattern that emerged across Europe in the aftermath of one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history, the Black Death.

The number of new applications for unemployment benefits fell by 16,000 last week to 223,000, more good news after a surprisingly strong January jobs report.

As the U.S. economy struggles to fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic, supply-chain disruptions across the country are driving up prices and leading to a growing shortage of goods.

The supply chain bottlenecks -- around the world -- have caused record shortages of many products that American consumers are used to having readily available, from household goods to electronics to automobiles.

Moody’s Analytics has warned that problems "will likely get worse before they get better."

The fourth monthly payment of the enhanced Child Tax Credit is landing in bank accounts on Friday, with anti-poverty researchers pointing to the ongoing cash deposits as helping to reduce hardship among families across the nation. 

At least one in four people quit their job this year, and the share could grow before the end of 2021, according to data from the people analytics firm Visier. Its latest report accounts for voluntary departures from over 50 U.S. enterprise companies and upwards of 500,000 employees across industries.

The latest weekly initial jobless claims dropped below 300,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Labor.

Initial applications for unemployment benefits totaled 293,000, the lowest level since March 14, 2020. Continuing claims, which indicate the number of people collecting ongoing benefits, dropped to 2.59 million, another low.

The latest number roundly beat out economists' forecasts of 318,000, and is an indication that companies are holding on to their workers amid a tight labor market.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic began, a sign the job market is still improving even as hiring has slowed in the past two months.