The show must go on, at least for the 2020 Census, during the COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down much of the outside world.

While the required information can be filled out online, by phone or by standard mail, all reducing the contact someone has to have with another individual, workers around the state have had to adapt their methods of spreading the word about the census’ importance.

Paulette Gilfoil, who heads Lehigh County’s Complete Count Committee, said usual census advertising methods of buses, billboards and even parade floats are no longer that effective in the wake of the coronavirus.

“We’ve had a lack of public meetings, school events have been canceled and a meeting with area church leaders has had to be taken off the calendar,” she said. “We’ve done a real pivot in our approach.”

The committee did get in a teletown conference call with executives from Lehigh and Northampton counties. A video with both executives posted last Friday already has 2,000 views, Gilfoil said.

“We’ve put on a very aggressive social media campaign,” she added, “and received grant money, some of which will be used for advertising on Spanish media stations. We have a very large Latino population in the Lehigh Valley and want to make sure we’re trying to reach them in every way possible.”

According to the latest 2020 Census response rates put out by the U.S. Census Bureau, three of the five counties in the Times News area were behind the statewide average of 34.3%.

Carbon stands at 28.6% Schuylkill at 31.2%, and Monroe at 18.4%. Lehigh is at 38.5%, while Northampton stands at 38.9%.

Norman Bristol-Colon, executive director, of the governor’s Census 2020 Complete Count Commission, said several factors are at play when a county’s response percentage is low.

“Monroe is one of those counties that has had a historically low response rate,” he said. “They have a large Latino population and there is a fear that these are going to go to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other entities. This is why we have created a strong partnership in some of these historically low response counties.”

The Census Bureau is prohibited by law from releasing any identifiable information about respondents.

Other areas, such as Philadelphia, have chosen other alternative methods to get the word out about the census.

“We’ve been attaching information to the food boxes given out at distribution sites,” said Stephanie Reid, executive director of Philly Counts 2020. “We’ve trained over 8,000 people and they are our leaders right now because we’re also seeing a lot of scams.”

Reid said some scammers are going door-to-door telling people they’ll take their forms and hand them in for them.

“The attempts certainly seem to have increased with everything going on in our country right now,” Reid said.

The 2020 Census is open for self-response online at 2020Census.gov, by calling 844-330-2020, and by paper through the mail.

Individuals should be counted where they are living and sleeping most of the time as of April 1.

Census results determine everything from funding for education, health care services, transportation projects and more, to the amount of seats a state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We’re going through one of the toughest challenges this country has ever faced, but this data we collect through the census dictates so much,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said during a conference call Monday morning. “In Pennsylvania alone, we received $39 billion from 55 federal programs and that was guided by the numbers in the 2010 census. For each Pennsylvanian counted in the last census, the state received over $2,100 per year in federal funding. For each person not counted, that means over $20,000 was lost on a 10-year basis.”

The U.S. Census Bureau suspended its 2020 Census field operations for two additional weeks, extending it to April 15. The deadline for the bureau to finish up follow-up operations is now Aug. 14.