These are post code areas in England and Northern Ireland not currently receiving Royal Mail post

Due to high numbers of staff off sick or self-isolating, there are several areas across England and Northern Ireland currently not receiving Royal Mail post.

The pandemic has hit Royal Mail staff hard, with 27 areas in England and one area in Northern Ireland now no longer receiving post due to coronavirus-related absences.

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There are some fears that the postal delays could cause elderly people to miss letters inviting them for a coronavirus vaccine, as the programme continues to be rolled out.

Speaking to local paper the Ilford Recorder, Valerie Wallbank from Hainault in north east London highlighted the severity of the situation in some areas of England, saying she had not received any post since 12 December.

"It's quite serious," she said.

"Some people are not bothered because they do everything online but for some of us it's quite important."

The affected areas are as follows:

Ashford (TN23-TN27)Barnsley (S70, S71, S72 and S75)Basildon (SS13-SS16)Bow (E3)Bury St Edmunds (IP28-IP33)Chelmsford (CM1-CM3)Christchurch (BH23)Daventry (NN11)Debden (IG7-IG10)Enfield (EN1-EN3)Grays (RM16-RM20)Hampton (TW12)Highbury (N5)Hornsey (N8)Horsham (RH12, RH13)Ilford (IG1-IG6)Leeds City (LS1-LS5)Lewisham (SE13)Magherafelt (BT45, BT46)Margate (CT7-CT9)Rugeley (WS15)Somerton (TA11)South Ockendon (RM15)South Woodford (E18)Upper Holloway (N7)Wandsworth (SW18)Wellington (TA21)Widnes (WA8)

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Royal Mail has released a statement about the delays to delivery, saying it is "working hard to deliver the most comprehensive and high quality service we can to all our customers", despite increased pressures on the service due to online shopping during the pandemic.

"The combination of greatly increased uptake of online shopping, and the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, mean that all delivery companies are experiencing exceptionally high volumes," the statement said.

"Every single parcel and letter is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

"This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can."