Royal Mail has announced Saturday letter deliveries will be temporarily suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting from May 2, letters will only be delivered from Monday to Friday.

However, Royal Mail has said most parcels – including special delivery and tracked services, as well as non-account services would continue to operate six days per week.

Collections from businesses, post offices and post boxes on Saturday will also continue.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Our postmen and postwomen are working very hard across the UK in challenging conditions.

“As we said at the start of the coronavirus crisis, there will be some disruption to services.

“Relevant factors include high levels of coronavirus-related absences and necessary social distancing measures.

“We understand the importance of the postal service in keeping the UK connected at this time.

“We have also listened to our hard-working colleagues who have asked us to ease the additional burden on them if possible. As a result, we are making some temporary changes to postal services.

“From May 2 we will temporarily no longer deliver letters on a Saturday.

“We will continue to provide a letter delivery service from Monday to Friday as normal.

“We will continue to deliver Special Delivery, Tracked, all non-account services and most other parcels from Monday to Saturday across the country.

“Customers should continue to post both letters and parcels as usual on Saturday.

“We will continue our Saturday collections from businesses, post offices and post boxes as normal.”