Royal Mail Dorcan Mail Centre closed due to Coronavirus case

Swindon has the highest incidence of Coronavirus in the South West, with a rate of 7.2 confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the past week. Now a Royal Mail worker has tested positive which has shut down the Royal Mail Dorcan Mail Centre for a deep clean which has been impacting local post this week.

Around 1,000 staff work at the Royal Mail Dorcan Mail Centre and as a result of the shut down for cleaning, deliveries across the Swindon area have been missed yesterday and are likely to be missed again today. The impacted postcodes are SN1-3, SN6, SN25, SN26 and the SN38 postcode.

The good news is that collections of mail from Post Offices and business customers are unaffected and should take place as normal. If you are in the Swindon area your business should be unaffected, but it’s worth noting that if you are shipping to a customer in the impacted postcodes then consumers could experience a delay in receiving their parcels.

Royal Mail say that they closed the Royal Mail Dorcan Mail Centre as a precautionary measure and throughout this crisis that every decision they make puts the health of their staff and customers first. They say that social distancing measures have been jointly agreed by local management and the CWU and that this has been supplemented with visible reminders such as posters and one-way floor markings.

This is unlikely to be the only instance where a Royal Mail depot has to be closed for deep cleaning and, as the Government’s Track and Trace program ramps up, sadly more Royal Mail workers are likely to test positive – with around 110,000 staff, who have worked straight through the pandemic without a break, statistically it would be inconceivable for none to be affected.

Our thoughts go out to the Swindon Postie who is impacted and we wish them a speedy recovery.