COVID Census Updates

The U.S. Census Bureau has adjusted its operational timeline due to Covid-19. Field operations are scheduled to resume on June 1, 2020. Self-response continues for households that have already received their census invitation in the mail and every household can respond online, by phone or by mail until October 31.

“Details and timeline for specific operations can be found here.”

The 2020 Census continues, and households can respond online or by phone until August 14. However, field operations have been suspended until April 15 and a further suspension should be expected.”

As a result of suspended field operations, 17.7% of households in New Mexico have yet to receive a census invitation. Every household can respond online or by phone even without a census invitation although waiting for your census unique ID is ideal. 

Note that  wait times at census call centers are longer than expected due to Covid-19 mitigation.

The 2020 Census has begun and it has never been easier to respond to the census online, by phone or by paper.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Census Bureau has suspended all field operations until April 1.

This means that the Update Leave Operation is now on hold. Update Leave was supposed to have census employees delivering questionnaires directly to 20% of homes in NM, including every household in every tribal community except Santa Clara Pueblo. Even if this operation resumes on April 1 or at a later date, a tribe may chose not to open their land to census takers and people in other parts of NM may be reluctant to allow strangers on their property.

Every household in New Mexico still has the opportunity to respond to the census online or by phone even if they have not been contacted by the Census Bureau and thus do not have their unique ID.

This is situation could change rapidly. If you have any questions, please contact either of the following:

Omar Flores
Data Analyst, University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies

Dr. Mercy Alarid
Senior Partnership Specialist, US Census Bureau

U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham on Operational Updates 

Less than one week ago, the 2020 Census fully kicked off, and invitations continue to arrive in mailboxes across the nation.  As of this morning, more than eleven million households have responded. America is stepping up to shape our future and ensure families and communities are counted.  

Beginning today, in support of guidance on what we can all do to help slow the spread of coronavirus, 2020 Census field operations will be suspended for two weeks until April 1, 2020. The Census Bureau is taking this step to help protect the health and safety of the American public, Census Bureau employees, and everyone going through the hiring process for temporary census taker positions. 

During this pause in field operations, the Census Bureau will continue to evaluate all 2020 Census operations. Should any additional adjustments need to be made, the Census Bureau will communicate these changes broadly and promptly.  

In late May, census takers around the nation will begin visiting households that have not yet responded to the 2020 Census to help complete the count. As we continue to monitor the evolving COVID-19 outbreak, we will adjust census taker and survey operations as necessary in order to follow the guidance of federal, state and local health authorities. 

The public is strongly encouraged to respond to the 2020 Census online using a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and can also respond by phone or mail. Everyone should respond to the 2020 Census as soon as they receive their invitation — and when they’re finished, they can make sure their friends, families and social networks know about the importance of responding.   

It has never been easier to respond to the census, and the 2020 Census will count everyone accurately. We recognize that many people plan to access the 2020 Census through other response modes, such as phone or paper, which is why the 2020 Census has such a nimble design.  

On March 15, 2020, the Census Bureau announced several adaptations to our group quarters operations to accommodate recent scheduling changes on college campuses as leadership takes action to keep students and faculty safe.  

For all other Census Bureau household and economic surveys separate from the 2020 Decennial Census, Bureau personnel will begin using phone calls instead of in-person visits. In the limited number of instances where an in-person visit is necessary, we are working closely with public health authorities to ensure each visit is accomplished safely.

Once again, we encourage everyone to respond online today at 2020Census.gov.  With the flexibility and support of the American people, we will achieve a complete and accurate countwhich helps guide funding decisions for things like hospitals, roads and emergency services. Respondents can also respond by calling the number provided in their invitation or by mail once they have received a paper form.  

The New Mexico Complete Count Census 2020 Office would like to provide an update on the impact the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) will likely have on our collective approach to Census outreach.  First, as far as we know, the Census is not being postponed and will end officially on July 31, 2020. 

“The U.S. Census Bureau continues to carefully monitor the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and follow the guidance of federal, state and local health authorities. We are adjusting some operations as outlined (in the link below) with two key principles in mind: protecting the health and safety of our staff and the public, and fulfilling our statutory requirement to deliver the 2020 Census counts to the President on schedule. For the latest operational updates, see the statement on modifying 2020 Census operations.”

U.S. Census Bureau Communications related to COVID-19:

Source: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/2020-census-updates.html

Their key message right now for anyone with questions about how COVID-19 will affect the 2020 Census: It has never been easier to respond on your own, whether online, over the phone or by mail—all without having to meet a census taker. 

Guidance on Modifying Outreach Activities

Many of the previous outreach strategies relied on contacting people one on one and at large community events.  Since most of these events have been cancelled and door to door outreach may seem less safe right now, we are asking all local CCCs to continue their push to get a complete and accurate count by pivoting strategies as necessary to still reach and motivate as many people as possible to fill out their Census form.  Attached is a best practices document that our team put together for outreach strategies amid COVID-19.  We look forward to talking to you more about this and hearing your ideas at the upcoming March 25^th Local CCC webinar.

State and local health officials are continuously assessing the situation and will alert the community as the situation changes. In order to protect the health and safety of the public during this time and in the spirit of our campaign, the Census Office stands firm in its commitment to support partners as they maintain, modify or postpone activities as necessary.  This may require changes in the scope of work for contracts you have entered into.   Upon approval of modified activities by your local CCCs, DFA requests that you continue to keep us updated on changes to activities in the regular reporting as outlined in the grant agreements.

Lastly, we encourage you to not cancel, delay, or postpone your CCC meetings.  On Monday, we used WebEx to successfully host our Statewide CCC meeting and encourage you to do the same.  Zoom is also another tool.  Please reach out to Ramya Gorantla at Ramya.Gorantla@state.nm.us and Emma Erickson-Kery at Emma.Erickson-Kery@state.nm.us if you would like more information about these tools or have any other questions.

• FreeConferenceCall.com

  Instructions
  1. Download the latest version of our mobile app. We’ve built in call routing technology to help avoid phone carriers that are experiencing high congestion. In the app you can also choose to call in using wifi. We suggest trying this if you previously called in and received a busy signal. Download for iPhone or Download for Android.
  2. Schedule meetings 5, 15, 45, or 50 minutes past the hour. As an example try scheduling your meeting to start at 9:50 instead of 10:00. This is because demand surges on the hour and the half hour and your phone carriers network will be most strained at those times.
  3. If you call in and receive a busy signal send a text that says “Help” to your conferences dial-in number. We will then send you backup numbers that you can use.
  4. If you have AT&T, tweet them @ATT and tell them they need to stop blocking calls to FreeConferenceCall.com. It is almost unbelievable to us, but even during this crisis they are blocking calls to competitors. For many of you who have received busy signals when dialing in, this is likely the reason why. Please tweet them and tell them that during this time it is more important than ever that we all band together.

• Webex
  https://www.webex.com/video-conferencing

• Zoom
  https://zoom.us 

The health and safety of everyone living in New Mexico is of the utmost importance in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.