Australia Post has temporarily paused parcel collections from e-commerce retailers throughout New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory due to the worsening Covid-19 outbreak.

The logistics business said it had 500 staff members in necessary self-isolation which placed an increased level of pressure on its already stretched resources and that, in order to help manage already record levels of demand, it would need to shut off the service between Saturday 4 and Tuesday 7 September.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the business said.

“Delivers will continue across the weekend and parcel processing [will continue].”

According to the ABC, AusPost executive general manager Gary Starr said customers who had ordered goods in well in advance of Father’s Day, Sunday 5, had a “good chance” to get their delivery before the weekend but ceded there is already a delay in the network.

“It’s been quite an unprecedented period for Australia Post,” Starr said.

“We’ll continue to process parcels and deliver them, and we’ll start picking up again from Tuesday. [Businesses] will be able to take orders from the customers and prepare [for the week ahead].”

Starr also said that, despite the inconvenience this will cause customers and business partners, it isn’t looking at compensating businesses for the pause due to the fact most of its services will continue unhindered.

“We’re not stopping delivery – just the collection for e-commerce customers,” Starr said.

The pause comes just days after the business revealed a year of record revenue, making $8.27 billion in sales throughout FY21. During the year e-commerce deliveries jumped 31.8 per cent, as Australians continued to face lockdowns and movement restrictions due to Covid-19.