The coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of abating in Finland and the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has released new guidelines meant to prevent the spread of the disease throughout the country. The new rules and regulations unveiled by officials earlier this week will come into force tomorrow, Sunday, 11 October.
Restricting operating hours and tougher rules for some parts of the country
The new rules stipulate that in the provinces that have been hit the hardest by the virus, namely Uusimaa, Southwest Finland, Pirkanmaa, Kanta-Häme, Ostrobothnia and Southern Ostrobothnia, catering will stop welcoming visitors and servicing customers at 10 pm and will then close down at 11 pm. In addition, catering establishments are only allowed to take in half of the usual number of people.
The restrictions will take effect the night between Saturday 10.10. and Sunday 11.10 immediately at midnight. The new rules will be in effect at the very least until 31 October 2020.
Meanwhile, in the other provinces – the ones that have not been as affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, the restrictions that came into force earlier in October will remain in place for the time being. These more relaxed rules state that alcoholic beverages may be served until 00:00 AM, and catering establishments may be open until 01:00 AM. No restrictions on the number of customers will be put into place in these parts of the country.
The new rules and regulations that are being introduced in different regions of Finland make up of the government’s overall coronavirus strategy. With the goal of preventing the need for a state-wide lockdown, authorities are instead trying to isolate the disease in different parts of the country. Thus, the introduction of these new measures in a select number of places will allow citizens in other regions of Finland to continue living their lives as normally as possible.
Source: TheMayor.EU
