The United States Postal Service has suspended deliveries to and from Australia due to a lack of transportation and impacts of the Covid pandemic.

“The Postal Service is temporarily suspending international mail acceptance for certain destinations due to impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other unrelated service disruptions,” USPS said in an announcement on its website.

Another 21 countries, including New Zealand, will also be affected by the suspension.

USPS also told customers to refrain from posting packages addressed to these locations.

The suspension will affect services such as First-Class Mail International, Priority Mail Express International and Priority Mail Express International.

For packages that have already been posted, the company will mark them as “Mail Service Suspended — Return to Sender”, and they will be sent back. USPS will refund the cost of postage and fees upon request for returned items.

Or, instead of a refund, customers may resend the items at no cost once normal services resume.

A date for the restart of deliveries has not yet been announced.