May 2020 - Service Announcements

28 May 2020

Slovenia – Resumption of postal services

Pošta Slovenije has advised that the COVID-19 epidemic is deemed to have ended in Slovenia as of 15 May 2020. Nevertheless, the Government of Slovenia has maintained the measures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus, pending a review on 31 May 2020.

Postal services are now returning to normal. All postal items will continue to be delivered in line with national health guidelines. Registered letters, parcels and EMS items will be delivered and a signature collected whilst respecting social distancing measures.

Consequently, Pošta Slovenije is declaring the situation of force majeure to be at an end, with effect from 1 June 2020.

28 May 2020

Spain – Extension of the state of alert

Correos y Telégrafos has advised that the Spanish Government has extended the state of alert, initially declared on 14 March 2020 to reduce the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), until 7 June 2020. This state of alert may be further extended for an undefined period.

This will continue to have a major impact on operations. Consequently, until further notice, Correos y Telégrafos remains unable to guarantee quality of service for all types of inbound and outbound mail and apply standard rules for items requiring signature on delivery.

28 May 2020

Eswatini – Extension of partial lockdown

Eswatini Posts & Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC)has advised that following the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, EPTC has been impacted as follows:

The country has been on partial lockdown, which was initially scheduled to end on 18 May 2020. However, owing to an increase in the number of new cases of people contracting the virus, the government of Eswatini has extended the lockdown by one month, until 19 June 2020.

During the partial lockdown, limited postal services are being offered.

Consequently, delivery standards are not being met.

28 May 2020

Hong Kong, China – Further measures to limit the spread of COVID-19

Hongkong Post has updated that it has temporarily changed its delivery process for all items requiring signature on delivery. With effect from 28 March 2020, for postal items requiring signature on delivery, when performing at-the-door delivery, the postman or postwoman will not obtain a signature from the recipient to reduce human interaction. In case of an unsuccessful at-the-door delivery attempt, the recipient will receive a notification requesting him/her to collect the item at a designated post office, in accordance with the normal procedure. The collection arrangements at the post office remain unchanged.

Hongkong Post has also temporarily suspended the advice of delivery service for incoming mail items to Hong Kong.

28 May 2020

Vanuatu – Update on state of emergency

anuatu Post has advised that the Vanuatu Government has extended the state of emergency, declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Tropical Cyclone Harold, for a further 30 days.

For this reason, service delivery standards cannot be guaranteed and a situation of force majeure has been declared until the situation has returned to normal.

18 May 2020

Mauritius – Resumption of postal services

Mauritius Post has advised that the curfew put in place by the government is to be gradually lifted from 15 May 2020 onwards.

All postal services will therefore resume as of 15 May 2020.

Delivery of all postal items will be strictly in line with the national health guidelines laid down by the government. Registered letter-post, parcel-post and EMS items will be delivered against signature, with social distancing measures applied.

15 May 2020

Romania – State of alert

CN Poșta Română SA has advised that the state of emergency in Romania is being replaced by a state of alert with effect from 15 May 2020.

Therefore, the situation of force majeure previously declared by Poșta Română is being extended until further notice.

Consequently, Poșta Română is still not able to guarantee service delivery standard on mail services.

15 May 2020

Spain – Extension of the state of alert

Correos y Telégrafos has advised that the Spanish Government has extended the state of alert, initially declared on 14 March 2020 to reduce the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), until 24 May 2020. This state of alert may be further extended for an undefined period.

15 May 2020

Estonia – Update on measures to minimize the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)

Estonian Post has advised that since 5 May all inbound items are being delivered as follows:

Delivery standards are not yet fully adaptable, but are as normal as possible;
All courier shipments requiring a signature are delivered to the addressee (there is a photo of the address card signed by the addressee);
Registered letters containing documents are delivered without a required signature to the recipient’s postal box;
All registered small packets are available via pick up points.

08 May 2020

United Kingdom – Update on measures to limit the spread of COVID-19

Royal Mail Group (Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide) has advised that as part of UK measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19, they have had to change their delivery process for all postal items requiring signature on delivery. As from 13 March 2020, items requiring a signature on delivery will not always be signed for by the recipient. Instead, in these exceptional and difficult circumstances, where the recipient has not been able to sign for the item but has duly received it, a code (XP1) will be entered into the handheld device, and this will constitute evidence of receipt.

In addition, Royal Mail Group also can no longer guarantee service delivery standards, in view of the UK Government introducing a series of measures, including self-isolation, social distancing, advising people to work from home and restricting travel with a view to minimizing the spread of COVID-19.

In addition, Royal Mail Group will suspend Saturday deliveries of untracked letters and small packets, with effect from 9 May. It will continue to deliver untracked letters and small packets from Monday to Friday as normal.

Saturday deliveries will be maintained for the majority of tracked parcel services.

08 May 2020

Liechtenstein – Update on measures taken to minimize the spread of COVID-19

Liechtensteinische Post has advised that the following steps will be taken for the delivery of registered mail from 11 May 2020:

The postman rings the doorbell;
If the customer is at home, the deliverer asks if he/she is allowed to sign for the customer; however, if the customer so prefers, he/she can sign with his/her own pen;
If the customer is not at home, the item will be delivered to the relevant postal branch as usual;
Parcels will only be deposited if a corresponding order is available.

05 May 2020

Mauritius – Update on measures taken to minimize the spread of COVID-19

Mauritius Post has advised that the Government of Mauritius has decided to extend the current curfew until 1 June 2020.

All Post Offices nationwide are closed and all classes of mail will be subject to delays.

Owing to the suspension and cancellation of many flights to and from Mauritius, severe delays for all outbound and inbound mails (letter-post, parcel-post and EMS) are to be expected until sufficient transport capacity becomes available. Therefore, quality of service for all types of inbound and outbound mail is affected, and service delivery standards, which fall under the already invoked case of force majeure with regard to quality of service, cannot be guaranteed until the situation returns to normal.

04 May 2020

Slovakia – Update on measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus

Slovenská pošta has advised that the Slovak Government has announced a four-phase plan to relax social distancing restrictions.

As such, with effect from 23 April 2020, collection of signature on delivery for inbound items where required has resumed. Items are delivered to an outdoor location if possible, and recipients are required to observe certain rules (face covering, use of own pen, social distancing). Such deliveries are not made to customers who are quarantined. Delivery staff will not deliver items to individual apartments; they will ring the bell at the main entrance of the apartment building.

For items received from 1 May 2020 onwards, standard collection arrangements will resume, but with a collection period of 18 calendar days. If it is not possible to deliver the item owing to quarantine measures, it will be returned to the sender with reason for return indicated as "quarantine".

04 May 2020

Ukraine – Update on measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19

Ukrposhta has advised that the previously announced state of emergency across the country, initially due to end on 24 April 2020, has now been extended until 11 May 2020.

Ukrposhta is maintaining its operations, with measures in place to protect staff and customers. As these measures include self-quarantine of staff, delays are to be expected in the delivery of all inbound mail. It will not be mandatory for Ukrposhta to collect and provide written proof of delivery; registered postal items (other than summons) will be left in addressees' mailboxes, and inbound international postal items will be stored at post offices free of charge until the end of the state of emergency.

04 May 2020

Poland – Measures to minimize the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Poczta Polska has advised that new measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 have been implemented in Poland and will continue to affect its services.

These new measures came into force on 21 April 2020, and will remain in force until further notice. New guidelines for the delivery of registered letter items, postal parcels and courier items (EMS) have been introduced. From 21 April 2020, registered letter-post items without advice of delivery can be delivered to the addressee's mailbox (the delivery is recorded in the IT system), while parcels and insured parcels, including advice of delivery and courier items (EMS), are delivered with signature. If the recipient refuses to sign, the last four digits from the ID document, as well as the type of ID and the exact name of the receiver, are placed in the delivery card by the courier/postman. Registered letter-post items with advice of delivery are delivered to the addressee or authorized person after verification of their ID document (the last four digits from the ID and the type of ID are placed in the delivery card as well the exact name of the receiver instead of signature). Poczta Polska will continue to maintain the force majeure clause regarding quality of service.