General
As of 1.4.2020, 262 incidents and 8 deaths were reported.
Most businesses have closed and only certain critical ones remain open like food stores. Movement of people is based on a authorisation system and there police is checking for unauthorized people on the streets.
There are decrees issued by the Ministry of Health on a regular basis. Cyprus Post, along with other Government Department has been declared a vital service.
Protective measures:
Cyprus Post has taken measures for the protection of its staff and customers, adhering to the decrees issued.
- Glass/plexiglass partitions have been installed at the counters.
- There is restricted entry in the Post Offices limited to 2 customers at a time.
- Inside and outside the Post Offices, it is obligatory to keep a distance of 2 meters.
- All Post Offices have been provided with antiseptics and disposable gloves.
- All premises and vehicles have been disinfected and the process will be repeated on fortnight basis.
Staff related issues:
- Staff belonging to the vulnerable groups have stayed at home or special measures have been taken at work for their protection.
- Staff that needed to be at home to take care of young children (schools are closed), were given days off or a combination of days off and work from home.
- The concentration of staff in premises has been controlled by introducing shifts.
Operational Issues:
- The network of Post Offices is operational based on available staff. At the moment, about 20% of staff is off duty for various virus-related reasons. Between 5% and 10% of the Post Offices remain closed on a daily basis (2-5 locations).
- Home delivery is operating in general as usual but is adapted when needed based on availability of staff.
- Collection from pillar boxes and post offices is done every other day.
- Outbound mail except Quickpost premium international courier service was suspended on 17.3.2020.
- Mail services (regular letter, registered, parcels, EPG parcels and EMS), will resume on 3.4.2020 to 5 main destinations (BE, DE, GR, UK, US).
- We have prolonged the time that we keep uncollected items at the pick up location until after the restrictive measures are over.
- We have introduced contact less delivery/collection of items and we authorized the branch managers to control the notifications to customers to pick up their items.
- We are planning as of next week to expand the use of the network of parcel lockers to non-subscribers so that to minimize the need to visit the Post Office.
- For the 4 main Citizens Center (KE.PO.), offering government services on behalf of government departments, we are introducing telephone appointments as of 6.4.2020.
Source: Cyprus Post