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Only days into the start of the 2020 census, the Census Bureau said Wednesday that it is suspending its field operations for two weeks while it searches for ways to protect its workers from exposure to the coronavirus. The immediate impact of the suspension, beyond a delay in a scheduled count of the nation’s homeless and a break in training census-takers, was not clear. But experts who had been briefed on the move said the bureau was racing to adjust to government warnings about the scope and consequences of the virus’s spread, which seemed to grow more dire by the day. (Wines, 3/18)

As the country continues to bunker down in response to the spread of COVID-19, the bureau's director, Steven Dillingham, says it is making the change "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." For the next couple of weeks, the bureau is also reducing the number of on-site workers at its two centers in Phoenix and Jeffersonville, Ind., for processing paper census forms, the bureau says in a separate statement on its website. (Wang, 3/18)

Postal carriers say they are being pressed into service against medical advice and with insufficient protection against the novel coronavirus. Two mail carriers told ProPublica they have been pressured to stay on their routes despite showing symptoms of COVID-19. One of the workers, in Denver, says he had to keep delivering mail for days while he awaited a doctor’s note. He says the route includes many locations where there are elderly and immunocompromised residents. (Jameel, 3/18)