NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (August 12, 2020) — The Post Office in Charlestown, Nevis has resumed regular hours of operation following several months of reduced hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective August 7, 2020, the post office’s opening hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. During the COVID-19 lock down and curfew, the services were available from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Hon. Spencer Brand, Minister responsible for Posts in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), said the extension of the operating hours was made in an effort to improve the delivery of the essential services the post office provides.

During the August 6, 2020, town hall meeting hosted by the NIA, Minister Brand outlined some of the challenges faced with respect to the post office.

“We recognise that at our post office, we have limited space for the size of staff that we have working there, and so we would have had to undertake some shift system and rotation, and also reduce some of the hours with regard to the length of time the post office was open.

“We’re also facing another challenge as a number of the workers are young mothers, and as you are aware, a number of the daycare centres are closed, so quite a number of the staff are in a dilemma in regards having someone to take care of their young children.

“We recognise that there continues to be the demand for service at the post office and so we are working to see how we can ensure that once we increase the working hours, we will be able to protect the general public and the staff,” he explained.

The Minister noted that the post office is one of the government agencies whose revenue has been severely impacted by the fall-off in business due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He revealed a significant downturn in the volume of packages that passed through the post office between January and June 2020, however, he did express optimism that the situation will improve as the economy recovers.

“During that period we’ve seen a reduction of 745 packages and that is significant revenue loss for the Treasury.

“I’m hoping that once things turn around we can see an increase in the number of packages passing through our post office, thus increasing the revenue collection there,” Mr. Brand said.