COVID-19 Update

Last week, we received our first notice from USPS that service to certain countries is officially suspended by the US Postal Service.

Access Worldwide has contingency plans in place to handle these country suspensions. Any suspended countries will be diverted to a special hold area and kept by country and by day. Once the suspensions are lifted we will enter the mail at that time. We are set up to handle this country by country, so that we can release each country’s mail as soon as they are able to accept it.
The Postal Service will temporarily suspend international mail acceptance to destinations where air and sea transportation is unavailable due to widespread cancellations and restrictions into the area:

  1. Angola
  2. Benin
  3. Bolivia
  4. Bosnia and Herzegovina
  5. Botswana
  6. Burundi
  7. Cameroon
  8. Cayman Islands
  9. Chad
  10. Cook Islands
  11. Costa Rica
  12. Cuba
  13. Curacao
  14. Democratic Republic of the Congo
  15. Ecuador
  16. Fiji
  17. French Polynesia
  18. Gambia
  19. Guatemala
  20. Guinea Bissau
  21. Guyana
  22. Honduras
  23. India
  24. Kenya
  25. Kiribati
  26. Kuwait
  27. Kyrgyzstan
  28. Laos
  29. Lebanon
  30. Lesotho
  31. Libya
  32. Madagascar
  33. Malawi
  34. Maldives
  35. Mauritius
  36. Moldova
  37. Mongolia
  38. Mozambique
  39. Nepal
  40. New Caledonia
  41. New Guinea
  42. Panama
  43. Papua New Guinea
  44. Paraguay
  45. Peru
  46. Republic of the Congo
  47. Rwanda
  48. Samoa
  49. Saudi Arabia
  50. Senegal
  51. Seychelles
  52. Solomon Islands
  53. South Africa
  54. Sri Lanka
  55. Sudan
  56. Tajikistan
  57. Tanzania
  58. Timor-Leste
  59. Tonga
  60. United Arab Emirates
  61. Uganda
  62. Uruguay
  63. Vanuatu
  64. Venezuela
  65. Zambia
  66. Zimbabwe

The following countries have suspended certain mail services:

  • Madagascar UPDATE: Paositra Malagasy has advised that the Government of Madagascar has extended the state of emergency in the country until April 19, 2020.

  • South Africa UPDATE: South African Post Office Ltd. has advised that the government has extended the lockdown until April 30, 2020. The previously declared force majeure situation remains in place. At present, normal services are due to resume as of May 4, 2020.


The following countries have announced service disruptions:

  • Philippines UPDATE: Philippine Postal Corporation has advised the period of community quarantine has been extended until April 30, 2020.

– International mail processing centers will maintain a skeleton workforce in order to accept incoming international dispatches. However, items will be processed and forwarded to delivery post offices upon resumption of the normal work schedule, which is schedule for April 30, 2020.
– There will be no international dispatches from the Philippines to the United States until end of the community quarantine.

  • South Korea UPDATE: Korea Post has advised that, owing to the suspension of flights, the processing of all outbound letter-post, parcel-post and EMS items destined to Guam is suspended from April 10, 2020 until further notice.

– Delays to inbound and outbound postal items are expected during the community quarantine period. Detailed information on the areas covered by the community quarantine will be provided as soon as it is available.

As always, we are available to discuss at your convenience. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about these new developments.