Survey shows effect of virus on food scarcity, rent payments

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — More than 10% of U.S. households in a survey last week said they could not get enough of the food they wanted or needed, and almost a quarter of respondents said they had trouble paying their rent or mortgage, according to survey results released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Household Pulse Survey showed that more than 40% of respondents said last week they had delayed seeking medical care as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and almost 100% of respondents with kids in school had education plans disrupted by school closures, transitions to online learning or having parents teach at home.

A little under half of the households surveyed last week had some loss of job-related income, according to the survey.

Wednesday's release was the first for the Household Pulse Survey, which is an effort by the Census Bureau and five other federal agencies to capture the effect of the pandemic on households in almost real time. It will be updated weekly through the summer.

When it came to food scarcity, Mississippi led the nation with almost 20% of respondents reporting they had trouble getting the food they wanted or needed. North Dakota had the lowest rate at 5.4%.

More than half of respondents in Oregon reported delaying getting medical care, the highest in the nation, while only 36% of respondents in Oklahoma said they had delayed medical care, the lowest in the nation.

Invitations to participate in last week's online survey were sent out to 1,048,950 households, and 41,996 respondents answered the questionnaire between May 7 and May 12 for what was actually the second survey. The first survey was conducted between April 23 and May 5, and those results also were released Wednesday.

The other agencies involved are the National Center for...