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Royal Mail warns of pingdemic delivery delays

Written By:
Guest Author
Posted:
22/07/2021
Updated:
22/07/2021

Guest Author:
Emma Lunn

Royal Mail has warned of disruption to deliveries in 12 postcodes across the UK, while supermarkets warn of product shortages amid the pingdemic.

Postal delivery workers are the latest workers to be hit by the so-called ‘pingdemic’ which has forced thousands of workers into isolation after coming into contact with someone with Covid-19.

Royal Mail says it aims to deliver to all addresses six days a week. But if resourcing issues, associated self-isolation and safety measures prevent this, it will deliver at least every other day.

It says it’s only in ‘extreme cases’ where offices are severely affected by absence levels that this may not be possible.

Mail centres in Cardiff, Chester, Plymouth and Swindon have all been affected by staff shortages and not processed mail to schedule over the past 24 hours. As a result, mail deliveries in the following postcodes may be disrupted this week.

  • Blackpool (FY1-FY6)
  • Bristol South East (BS4, BS14)
  • Chorley (PR6)
  • Enfield (EN1, EN2, EN3)
  • Middleton (M24)
  • Newton Abbot (TQ12, TQ13)
  • Plympton (PL7)
  • Rochdale (OL11, OL12, OL13, OL14, OL15, OL16)
  • Southport (PR8)
  • Worthing DO (BN11, BN12, BN13, BN14)

Royal Mail apologised for any inconvenience and said it was working hard to deliver as comprehensive a service as possible with the resource available. It added that it was prioritising the delivery of Covid-19 vaccination letters and test kits.

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Supermarket shortages

Meanwhile Iceland, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Co-op said they have all experienced shortages of certain products due to the pingdemic.

Tesco said it was experiencing a “temporary low availability across a small number of products” while Sainsbury’s said it “might not always have” products customers want. The Co-op warned it was “running low on some products”.

Richard Walker, Iceland CEO, told ITV News that shops were “struggling to function” and urged customers not to stockpile or panic buy.