Royal Mail in Swindon confirms two Covid-19 cases as delivery office reopens

It was deep cleaned and a Royal Mail spokesman confirmed yesterday afternoon that it was busy trying to address the backlog of mail.

The postcodes affected are SN1-3, SN6, SN25, SN26 and SN38.

A spokesperson said: “Royal Mail takes the health and safety of its colleagues, its customers and the local communities in which we operate very seriously.

“An intensive clean of the building has been completed following the two positive tests for coronavirus.

“The majority of our colleagues are now back in the office and are focusing on providing a full service to the local community.

“Throughout this crisis, every decision we make puts the health of our people and customers first. We have put in place a range of preventive measures to protect both our customers and our colleagues.

“As well as encouraging good hand hygiene, standard ways of working have been revised to ensure that colleagues stay two metres apart at all times.

“All staff have been briefed about the social distancing measures jointly agreed by local management and the communications workers union.

“This has been supplemented with visible reminders such as posters and one-way floor markings. In addition there is only one person permitted in a Royal Mail delivery vehicle at any one time.”

The company also stressed fears raised by Adver readers that the virus could spread on packages handled by infected staff were wide of the mark.

It added: “Public Health England has previously advised there are no additional precautions needed for handling post or packages.

“In order to protect further both our people and customers, we have made a series of adjustments to our parcel handling procedures.

“The vast majority of mail can be posted safely through the letterbox without any interaction with the customer at all.

“We are temporarily not handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures.”