what does 'while' mean in this sentece?

[Saraj Zhou]

[FONT=&quot]''While a string of businesses have temporarily or permanently gone card-only, some consumers have been avoiding touching banknotes and coins due to Covid transmission worries.''[from The Guardian]
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[FONT=&quot]In this sentence, the word ''while'' as a conjunction connect two independent sentence.
I have checked the Cambridge dictionary for its definition
-during the time that, or at the same time as
-despite the fact that; although
-compared with the fact that; but
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[FONT=&quot]I can't figure out what does 'while' mean in this sentece.[/FONT]

 

[jutfrank]

Logically, the conjunction while shows the two events as comparable (business/consumers) and co-inciding (both events have occurred within the same time frame).

 

[Rover_KE]

Speakers of American English are more likely to say 'whilst' instead.

There's no difference in meaning.

 

[GoesStation]

Speakers of American English are more likely to say 'whilst' instead.

No we aren't! We never use whilst except ironically.