Hansi Lo Wang

More than two months after the national roll-out of the 2020 census, most households in Puerto Rico are set to finally receive official instructions on how to participate in the count starting next week, the Census Bureau announced Friday.

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March.

Updated at 10:07 p.m. ET

As more states turn to contact tracing as part of their next phase in containing the coronavirus, New York is trying to build what could become one of the largest contact tracing programs for COVID-19 in the United States.

Updated at 8:56 p.m. ET

Some workers for the 2020 census are heading back to rural communities this week in more than a dozen states as part of a phased-in restart of field operations, which were suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

For weeks, first responders have been racing across New York City to try to save lives in the national epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

The stress from the high numbers of 911 calls and deaths from COVID-19 is taking a toll on them.

Elizabeth Bonilla, a paramedic for the New York City Fire Department, said every itch or scratch in her throat, minor headache or sneeze has her worried. Bonilla said she can't help but wonder, "Could I be next?"

Updated 12:35 p.m. ET Tuesday

With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting plans for the ongoing 2020 census, the Trump administration is asking Congress to pass a law that would change major deadlines that determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade.

Updated at 9:59 p.m. ET

While tens of millions of U.S. households continue to fill out 2020 census forms on their own, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing the Census Bureau to suspend field operations for the once-a-decade head count for two more weeks until April 15.

Updated March 19 at 9:25 a.m. ET

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the U.S. Census Bureau to temporarily suspend all field operations for the 2020 census for two weeks until April 1, the agency announced Wednesday in a statement on its website.

Updated March 15 at 6:47 p.m. ET

Already saddled with cybersecurity risks, hiring challenges and wavering public trust, the 2020 census now must contend with a growing public health crisis.

A group of Democratic senators have introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require the U.S. census and the country's largest survey to start directly asking about sexual orientation and gender identity.

If the Census Equality Act becomes law, sexual orientation and gender identity questions would have to be added to forms for the census by 2030 and for the American Community Survey — a survey that about 1 in 38 households are required by federal law to complete every year — by 2020.

NPR's "Take A Number" series is exploring problems around the world — and solutions — through the lens of a single number.

One of the places many people are first prescribed opioids is a hospital emergency room. But in one of the busiest ERs in the U.S., doctors are relying less than they used to on oxycodone, Percocet, Vicodin and other opioids to ease patients' pain.

President-elect Donald Trump said he's finishing a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act with a proposal that would provide "insurance for everybody," according to a report by The Washington Post.

In the marshy woods of Secaucus, N.J., a mosquito can make a happy home.

With water and shade under a canopy of maple trees, you could barely ask for more to start your own bloodsucking family.

For Gary Cardini, though, this is a battleground.

"You want to get them in the water before they're flying," explains Cardini, who supervises the field team for Hudson County Mosquito Control. "In the water, they're captive. You know where they are."

There's a new tool for battling the opioid epidemic, compressed inside long, metal tanks at an emergency room in Paterson, N.J.

It's laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide.

Water safety concerns aren't just in Flint, Mich., these days. Communities in three states in the Northeast have found elevated levels of a suspected carcinogen — perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.

Used to make Teflon, the chemical has contaminated water supplies in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont.

After a four-month ban in the village of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., the New York State Department of Health declared the water safe to drink and cook with again on Wednesday. A temporary filtering system has brought PFOA levels down to nondetectable levels for weeks.

A street drug made of various chemicals sprayed on tea leaves, grass clippings and other plant material continues to send thousands of people suffering from psychotic episodes and seizures to emergency rooms around the country.

In 2015, calls to poison control regarding the drug already have almost doubled, compared to last year's total, and health professionals and lawmakers are struggling to keep up with the problem.