BALTIMORE — We’ve been hearing from people all over the city asking: where is my mail?
One of the side effects of the coronavirus pandemic— longer wait times and overworked postal offices.
We asked the United States Postal Service if delays in the area were due to a lack of staffing and heavy mail volume because of the coronavirus.
They got back to us and said they are doing everything they can to get mail out as quick as possible.
For Melanie Savage— leaving the house with her daughter who's severely disabled, isn’t an option.
“Medication is essential for my daughter to control her seizures,” Savage said. “It was ordered from the pharmacy. I couldn’t go pick it up because we’re under this lockdown and I can’t move her around."
She’s one of the many people who took to social media because of delays in important mail.
People from all over the city complaining, some going more than a week without delivery.
Savage said she had to make several calls to get important seizure medicine for her daughter, after it was several days late.
“She’s getting down to like two days worth of meds and there’s no refill,” she said. “I did get it in time I called the post office I called customer service at CVS.com”
She eventually got through and the post office tracked down the medication and got it to her.
Here is the full statement from the USPS:
There have been no recent cases of employees assigned to the Driud Post Office who have tested positive for COVID-19, but two employees from the same facility did test positive with the virus in May.
As you may know, under the Rehabilitation Act and the Privacy Act, specific employee medical information must be kept confidential and may only be shared in very limited circumstances. Therefore, the Postal Service cannot share the name of an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 or further specifics of his or her medical condition.
The Postal Service is a responsible employer that matches our workforce to an evolving workload and adjusts staffing continuously to serve our customers. The Driud Post Office continues to use additional carriers from nearby offices, when necessary, to provide adequate staffing.
Our goal is to quickly address service issues that are brought to our attention and encourage customers to contact us. To reach a postal representative, customers can call 800-ASK-USPS (800-275-8777), submit an inquiry online at https://www.usps.com/help/contact-us.htm [usps.com], or contact us through Twitter @USPShelp.
To reduce health risks for our employees and customers and to safeguard our operational and business continuity, the Postal Service is doing the following:
- Ensuring millions of face coverings, including masks, gloves and cleaning and sanitizing products are available and distributed to more than 30,000 locations every day through our Postal Service supply chain. We also have opened up local purchasing authorities and sourcing options so that our employees can access additional supplies within the communities they serve. We have expanded our national sourcing of supplies and services to ensure that increasing demands are met.
- Requiring that non-public facing Postal Service employees wear face coverings while at work, when proper social distancing cannot be achieved or maintained.
- In the local and state jurisdictions where there is an ordinance for the mandatory use of face coverings, we are voluntarily aligning by requiring that our public-facing Postal Service employees use face coverings.
- Requesting customers use face coverings while in our retail facilities located in jurisdictions that have implemented orders requiring use of face coverings by individuals within those jurisdictions.
- Reinforcing workplace behaviors to ensure that contact among our employees and with our customers reflects the best guidance regarding healthy interactions, social distancing, and risk minimization. We have implemented measures at retail facilities and mail processing facilities to ensure appropriate social distancing, including through signage, floor tape, and “cough/sneeze” barriers. We have changed delivery procedures to eliminate the requirement that customers sign our Mobile Delivery Devices for delivery. For increased safety, employees will politely ask the customer to step back a safe distance or close the screen door/door so that they may leave the item in the mail receptacle or appropriate location by the customer door.
