The Census Bureau announced Friday it will push back many of its efforts connected to the 2020 census and dip into a $2 billion contingency fund to keep the count on track after being diverted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The census will now run through mid-August as the agency works to meet an end-of-year deadline to deliver the numbers that determine the makeup of Congress. Census Bureau deputy director Al Fontenot told reporters Friday the agency is also considering more changes to the process.

[Census delays outreach due to coronavirus concerns]

“Of all of our worst nightmares of things that could have gone wrong with the census, we did not anticipate this set of actions,” Fontenot said.

He and other census officials emphasized the best way to help census operations would be to respond online, over the phone or through a paper form. About 18.6 million households have responded on their own so far, and the agency plans to publish a map of all response rates down to the county level starting Friday night.