International COVID-19 Lockdowns Affect Tristan Mail
The stricter COVID-19 lockdown rules introduced by certain countries mean that some transport connections are no longer available. This in turn is affecting the flow of international mail to and from Tristan da Cunha.
South African Connections
All Tristan's mail passes through Cape Town, where is handled by the South African Post Office (SAPO). SAPO recently announced changes to the countries to and from which it is able to offer a postal service.
These are the countries to which SAPO can dispatch mail under the current international lockdown (8th January 2021):
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The South African Post Office advises customers not to mail items to countries that are not on the list. If, however, an article has been posted to a country where the mail service is not available, it will be kept safely and dispatched immediately once transport connections become available.
Current Status of Tristan da Cunha Mail
The Tristan Post Office has had many queries from customers wanting to track packages etc. Most of them are still at the SAPO. This particularly applies to items sent to Germany, which is unfortunately not on the list above.
At the time of writing, the Tristan Post Office has a small amount of mail to dispatch on the recently arrived MV Baltic Trader when she departs later in January. However, we have kept behind mail to clients in the countries not listed above until we know it can be dispatched onward by the SAPO.