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Census Says Restart to Field Operations Will Be in Phases

Associated Press

   ORLANDO, FLORIDA - The U.S. Census Bureau's return to field operations
   for the 2020 national head count will take place in phases based on a
   region's lockdown orders and the availability of protective gear
   against the new coronavirus, bureau officials told lawmakers late last
   week.

   Census Bureau officials told members of the House Committee on
   Oversight and Reform last Friday that there would be a phased start to
   the resumption of field operations on June 1. The spreading virus, and
   subsequent stay-at-home orders, forced the bureau in mid-March to halt
   field operations such as hiring and training, reaching out to college
   students in off-campus housing and dropping off paper questionnaires to
   households without traditional addresses.

   The bulk of the field operations in which hundreds of thousands of
   census takers knock on the doors of homes where people haven't yet
   answered the questionnaire isn't starting until August, after the
   pandemic forced a delay from a May start.

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