The French postal service is asking mailers around the world to pause any non-urgent shipments to buyers in that country and has suspended certain mail services, according to the United States Postal Service.
In its 11th “COVID-19 CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS UPDATE,” published on March 31, 2020, the USPS said La Poste is asking mailers worldwide to defer their non-urgent shipments to France and is requesting that postal operators reduce the volume of despatches.
It’s remarkable to think that a postal system would make such a broad request of its international counterparts, and it signaled the impact the COVID disease is having that country. An update of the number of cases and deaths in France posted on the Guardian website on Tuesday afternoon is accompanied by a grim picture of workers preparing coffins outside of Paris. The UK newspaper said France announced today its biggest jump in coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The USPS is keeping mailers up to date on International Mail Service Disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Included in today’s announcement was the following update on France:
“France UPDATE: La Poste has advised that effective March 30, 2020, it will be unable to accept inbound letter-post flows in their entirety for the upcoming weeks, during which there will be four days of reception: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Efforts will be focused on urgent flows and the delivery of small packets able to help people during this confinement period. Therefore, La Poste is asking mailers worldwide to defer their non-urgent shipments to France and requesting that postal operators reduce the volume of despatches. For the same reason, La Poste will be unable to receive the following letter-post items; International Surface Airlift, M-bags, returns, and International Business Reply Service (IBRS).”
For those wanting to keep up-to-date on international mail disruptions, postal service provider Stamps.com has been publishing USPS advisories on its blog, which you can find on Blog.Stamps.com.
