France
Following the French President’s speech of 28 October announcing a new lockdown until at least 1 December 2020, the designated operator of France, La Poste, asks us to inform of developments with regard to the COVID-19 situation.
In metropolitan France, with transmission of the virus having significantly increased throughout the territory, new measures have been introduced to reduce contact and movement to a minimum, for the period from 30 October to 1 December at least. La Poste will naturally apply these measures in order to protect the health of its postal workers and the general public. As such, it may need to adapt the opening hours and operations of its processing and delivery centres, and its post offices. It will also implement measures to protect its staff, in line with the Ministry of Labour’s protocols.
While the imminent international border closures may lead to delivery delays (or non-compliance with certain standards), the operator would like to emphasize that its network is already strongly mobilized to ensure complete customer satisfaction and continuity in all its activities.
La Poste will, however, still not be in a position to accept letter-post, parcel-post and EMS items in closed transit dispatches, either for foreign countries or for French overseas territories.
Accordingly, the restrictions set out in previous Incident Bulletin messages regarding service standards will continue to apply and the force majeure situation will remain in force until at least 1 December 2020.
Honduras
The designated operator of Honduras, Empresa de Correos de Honduras (Honducor), informs that, in view of the measures adopted by the Honduran Government through an executive order of 25 October 2020 to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the entire territory of Honduras will remain in lockdown until 1 November 2020 (or a later date to be communicated in due course).
Although the lockdown is continuing, Honducor is still gradually resuming its activities and, in particular, the sorting, distribution and delivery of incoming mail. It therefore now invites other operators that are able to do so to accept and forward mail items for Honduras.
However, in line with public health measures, Honducor is currently operating with 50% of employees on site, which will have a have a significant impact on the quality of sorting, distribution and delivery of inbound items, as well as on the timely provision of EDI updates and processing of inquiries and international accounts.
Honducor advises that the force majeure situation previously notified remains in force.
Jamaica
The designated operator of Jamaica, Jamaica Post, wishes to inform that the Government of Jamaica has further extended the national curfew until 16 November 2020.
The force majeure situation previously announced continues to apply.
Malaysia
The designated operator of Malaysia, Pos Malaysia, asks us to inform that due to positive cases of COVID-19 reported on Post Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (KUL), it is unable to accept any mail until 12th November.
Pos Malaysia is fully committed to providing postal services to the extent possible. Domestic services and deliveries are still in operation; however, a situation of force majeure remains applicable with respect to quality of service and performance.
Poland
The designated operator of Poland, Poczta Polska, wishes to inform that the measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 are still in force in Poland, and will continue to affect its services.
In the case of parcel-post items, insured items with advice of delivery and EMS items addressed to persons in quarantine, the addressee will be contacted by telephone if possible before attempted delivery. If it is not possible to deliver the item to the addressee, it will be returned to the post office for temporary storage, and no notice will be left. The delivery will be attempted again once the quarantine is over.
International air traffic remains open, but operations are still limited to a few airlines at the international airport in Warsaw. Poland is accepting mail to a reduced number of destinations only: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria (Rep.), China (People’s Rep.), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Rep., Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Rep.), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Moldova, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, United Kingdom, United States of America and Viet Nam.
Designated operators are advised to consult the following web page (available in Polish only) for the most recent list of the destinations for which Poczta Polska is accepting mails: www.poczta-polska.pl/poczta-
Poczta Polska will continue to do its utmost to develop its cooperation with other countries as far as possible.
Samoa
The Government of Samoa has extended the state of emergency until 22 November 2020.
Slovakia
The designated operator of Slovakia, Slovenská pošta, would like to inform that, owing to the growing numbers of people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s government and public health authorities have declared a partial lockdown across the whole country, which will come into effect on 24 October 2020 and last for at least three weeks.
During the lockdown, postal services will continue to function with restrictions, reduced working hours in post offices, and reduction of the workforce to minimize contacts between people. Items normally requiring the addressee’s signature upon delivery will be handed over without signature.
These measures will affect the processing and delivery of all types of services, including outbound and inbound letter post, parcel post and EMS, with an impact on quality of service. The restrictions set out in previous Incident Bulletin messages regarding service standards and application of force majeure remain in place.
The authorities will reassess the situation in due course and decide on the possible extension of the partial lockdown, including possible closing of borders