Census Bureau Suspends Field Operations Due To Coronavirus

Just one week after the Census Bureau began its once-a-decade count of the U.S. population, it has suspended field operations for two weeks due to concerns about the health and safety of its workers and the public amid the coronavirus crisis. Although most census workers won’t go out into the field until May to knock on the doors of homes that haven’t turned in their census forms, some have already been out there dropping off questionnaires at places with no fixed addresses. Census notifications started being mailed out last week and the self-response website went live with people encouraged to answer the questionnaire online. Eleven million households had already answered as of March 18.