CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 28 percent of all U.S. households had responded to the 2020 U.S. Census including 19 percent of West Virginians as of Friday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those with the U.S. Census and other agencies, like the National Coalition for Literacy, were working to promote Census participation during the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic.

“If everybody in the state doesn’t fill out the Census, the government doesn’t know how many people there really are in the state and isn’t able to provide the right level of support,” said Deborah Kennedy, president of the National Coalition for Literacy.

“Construction of roads, funding for the schools, funding for your local hospitals and healthcare programs — if any of those things are important to you, then answering the Census is the way to make sure your community receives the support that it should have from the government.”

Census forms can be completed online, by phone at 1-844-330-2020 or by returning paper forms that were sent by mail in March.

U.S. Census operations remained suspended through Apr. 1 while adjustments were made to the schedule of operations to comply with social distancing and other guidelines to try to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The response deadline was being pushed back into August.

Kennedy cautioned that legitimate U.S. Census mailings would have return addresses for Jeffersonville, Ind. where the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Processing Center is located.

For those getting any future field visits, “The Census people will never ask you questions about your finances, your bank account number, your debit card number. They’ll never ask you for your Social Security number or your Medicare number,” she said.