The Internal Revenue Service has announced via its latest update that nearly two million more coronavirus stimulus checks have been disbursed this week to cash-strapped taxpayers under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

To date, including this current fifth batch of payments, roughly one hundred fifty-nine million checks worth $376 billion have been sent out. This now represents 84 percent of the $450 billion earmarked for stimulus funds, the agency noted.

In total, the batch included about 1.2 million direct deposit payments and nearly eight hundred thousand paper checks.

For this particular batch, the IRS heavily targeted Veterans Affairs beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefit payments but have yet to file their 2019 or 2020 taxes or did not use the IRS “Non-Filer” tool to set up direct payments. More than three hundred twenty thousand checks were sent out to individuals who fit into this category.

“The IRS continues to review data received from Veterans Affairs (VA), which covers veterans and their beneficiaries who receive Compensation and Pension (C&P) benefit payments who don’t normally file a tax return,” the IRS stated.

In addition, more than eight hundred thousand people who recently filed tax returns in order to get their information on file were also among the recipients of the new stimulus funds.

The fifth batch also included more than seven hundred thousand “plus-up” or supplemental payments for those who only received partial $1,400 payments on an earlier date.

“These ‘plus-up’ payments could include a situation where a person’s income dropped in 2020 compared to 2019, or a person had a new child or dependent on their 2020 tax return, and other situations,” the IRS said in a statement.

Moreover, VA beneficiaries and anyone else who didn’t receive either of the first two stimulus payments can still try to claim the money that they’re entitled to from the U.S. government. For this tax season, a Recovery Rebate Credit has been added to all returns, so that people in this situation can eventually receive the overdue payments.

According to the IRS website, it states that “if you didn’t get any payments or got less than the full amounts, you may qualify for the Recovery Rebate Credit and must file a 2020 tax return to claim the credit even if you don’t normally file.”

The agency advises that individuals keep the form they receive regarding their stimulus payment and refer to it when filing their tax returns.

Also, some people reportedly have gotten a confirmation letter (Notice 1444 or Notice 1444-B) from the IRS stating that their payment was issued even though they have yet to receive it. In this situation, the affected individuals have the option to request an IRS payment trace.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.