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Christmas is a time of stocking stuffers, parcels and cards being sent across the land, with Royal Mail typically hiring around 20,000 extra staff to deal with seasonal gift-giving.
Workers in London were probably not expecting to be handling hundreds of PCR tests when they signed up.
With the spread of the Omicron variant through the capital and record numbers of cases being discovered a shocking picture has surfaced online of a postbox brimming with Covid tests.
READ MORE: The three rules people should follow at New Year’s Eve parties
(Image: Reddit)
The picture was posted to the r/London page on Reddit and received a number of comments, some amusing, some more serious.
One wrote: “Postman needs a hazmat suit for collection.”
Another joked: “This picture should be the official R/London Christmas card.”
One commenter claimed to work for Royal Mail, posting: “I work for Royal Mail, half of what we deliver these days are Covid tests.”
After many commenters complained of long waiting times for getting results back one person responded: “As a NHS employee who finished his night shift I confirm that it’s crazy at the Lab!”
Government data shows that 122,186 new cases were found on Friday breaking previously case number records.
According to the Mayor of London, 22,224 tested positive for Covid yesterday (December 27).
Commenters also shared their stories of post boxes in their local areas being full.
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“Lewisham is like this,” another said. “Had to post my Christmas cards across three post-boxes because the first two I tried were so full of home PCRs that very few cards would fit in.”
With New Year on the horizon, it is likely that more people will be testing so they can meet with friends and family to celebrate, so PCR congestion might continue into 2022.
Figures show that despite a drop over Christmas and Boxing Day, Covid cases continue to break daily records as more and more people test positive.
It is possible that one in 10 Londoners could have the virus as of last weekend.
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