This is the year of the Big C.

The U.S. census happens once every 10 years and is an important part of American government.

But in 2020, the Census Bureau is putting up defenses against the other Big C: No one counted on COVID-19.

“We are adjusting operations as needed,” said Albert Fontenot, associate director for decennial programs with the U.S. Census Bureau, in a conference call Friday afternoon. “Of all the things that could have gone wrong ... we did not anticipate this set of actions.”

In a news release issued Wednesday by the Community and Economic Development, Gov. Tom Wolf asked the Census Bureau to extend the census submission deadline beyond July 31.

“The health practice of social distancing unfortunately runs counter to the Census Bureau's strategy of door-to-door enumeration for non-responders,” Wolf says in a letter sent to Wilbur Ross, U.S. secretary of commerce, Wednesday.

Wolf's letter also says Pennsylvania “will adjust its own Census 2020 messaging to further encourage census participation by mail, phone, or online.”

The census is listening to state and local needs, according to Timothy Olson, associate director for field operations.

The original data completion deadline of July 31 for nonresponse follow-up operations is extended to Aug. 14.

The window for self-responses will now remain open until Aug. 14, too.

Officials said Friday census workers will practice social distancing in the field, though practices will be more defined once workers start house-to-house calls. Fontenot said the majority of field work doesn't happen before April 1.

More than 5 million citizens had responded to the census online as of March 16, according to the Census Bureau website. Officials said Friday 18.6 million Americans have responded overall since the March 12 kick-off.

“The nation's response rate is on-track,” Fontenot said. “We'll get through this.”

The bureau also said it will be “adjusting operations” to accurately collect college student data.

“We are also actively working with housing (at) universities,” Fontenot said. “And other group quarters.”

Students living in university housing are tabulated by their universities via the bureau's Group Quarters Operation, which is also used for nursing homes, prisons, etc.

According to the bureau, college and university students who left campuses early due to COVID-19 concerns should still answer the census according to residential criteria: Citizens must register in the area where they sleep most nights out of the year under normal conditions.

The bureau is contacting schools to make sure they remind students to respond.

Hiring and on-boarding for census workers has also been “paused” until April 1 while states respond to COVID-19. Fontenot and Olson said most worker training will be online going forward.

“We don't want to attempt to forecast what will happen,” Fontenot said. “But we're going to take firm, direct action on what the current situations are.”

Olson said the bureau has received 2.8 million job applications, surpassing its target of about 2.6 million. Still, Olson said citizens should continue submitting job applications online. As things progress, additional workers might be needed.

In a time of uncertainty, census officials are encouraging Americans to respond to the count as soon as possible. Early responses cut down on field operations later in the year.

“It is our priority to protect the health and safety of the public,” Olson said. “It has never been easier to respond on your own.”

“It's important to our nation that everyone responds,” Fontenot said.

The public can view response rate information by state, county and city at 2020census.gov/en/response-rates. Officials said a live map would be launched on the site Friday afternoon.

Emails and phone calls made by the Eagle to the U.S. Census Bureau Public Information Office and the Philadelphia Regional Census Center for further information were not returned at the time this report was written.