Restaurants and coronavirus
Regional State Administrative Agencies' guidelines support restaurants in the implementation of the current restrictions.
1. Introduction and scope
According to the Parliament's decision, the Communicable Diseases Act (1227/2016) has been amended by temporarily adding section 58 (a) on restricting the operations of restaurants to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and section 58 (b) on the supervision of restaurants and following the requirements of the restrictions.
The temporary amendment to the Communicable Diseases Act, section 58 (a), continues to impose requirements on catering businesses concerning hygiene and guidance, general requirements for distance between customer seats, and obligations for planning activities. The Government Decree limits the number of customer seats, opening hours, and hours for serving alcoholic beverages, because it was deemed necessary for the prevention of the spread of a dangerous communicable disease.
In evaluating the necessity for restrictions, the types of restaurants that the restrictions would apply to needs to be examined, in addition to the information on the epidemic at the regional level. In Section 58 (a), Paragraph 2 of the Communicable Diseases Act, restaurants are divided into two groups according to the nature of their food serving activities, i.e. whether they primarily have alcoholic beverages available for consumption on their premises, or primarily provide food.
The Social Affairs and Health Committee has defended the division, noting that up to half of the number of customer seats can, in the view of the committee, be restricted in restaurants that are primarily perceived to be night clubs, licensed bars, or pubs. Restaurants with the least restrictions on customer seats, 25 percent of capacity, would include businesses considered to be food restaurants, pizzerias, hamburger restaurants, cafés, or lunch restaurants, for example.
The features set as criteria for regulation of restrictions on numbers of customers set in the law are also used in the evaluation of the need for other restrictions – especially concerning opening hours and hours for serving alcohol. The reason for this is that other criteria for taking significant characteristics of the restaurant into consideration do not yet exist.
These guidelines are intended for restaurant entrepreneurs and staff and for the purpose of implementing official supervision, and they describe the restrictions specified in the Communicable Diseases Act and the Decree issued under it for the restaurant business starting 23/12/2020. The restrictions provided apply to the restaurant business referred to in the Act on accommodation and restaurant operations. A restaurant refers to premises where catering services are carried out. These premises will be subsequently referred to as restaurants.
Purpose of the guidelines
The purpose of the guidelines is to support restaurants in the implementation of the current restrictions so that they can be implemented efficiently and consistently throughout the whole country. By carefully following these guidelines, the number of coronavirus infections and the number of people exposed to the virus can be reduced.
The Communicable Diseases Act, and the Decree issued by the Finnish Government based on the Act, contains temporary provisions on the necessary restrictions concerning the opening and serving hours of restaurants and the number and use of customer seats indoors and outdoors in order to prevent the spread of the infectious disease. Restaurants are required to comply with special hygiene requirements and to maintain a sufficient distance between customers.
The restrictions apply to marine vessels to the extent that they are governed by Finnish law. The legislation applicable to vessels in international maritime traffic is primarily determined by the state of registration of the vessel, i.e. the flag state.
Personnel restaurants and takeaway sales of food
The restrictions on opening hours, the number of customer seats, the placement of customers and maintaining a sufficient distance between customers do not apply to personnel restaurants or selling food or beverages for consumption elsewhere. However, other requirements of the Communicable Diseases Act and the Decree issued under it must be followed.
A personnel restaurant refers to serving food or beverages for the personnel of a community, foundation or institution or an otherwise restricted group of people. These include the personnel restaurants of retirement homes, hospitals, garrisons, prisons, day-care centres, schools and industrial facilities. Takeaway sales refer to selling food or beverages for the purpose of consuming it elsewhere.
Fuel filling stations, water, and aircraft
*Restrictions on opening hours do not apply to restaurant businesses operating on water vessels, and aircraft operating between Finland and foreign countries or operating in a foreign country, or to restaurants operating in conjunction with fuel filling stations.
Definition of an alcoholic beverage
The definition of an alcoholic beverage is laid down in section 3, subsection 1(2) of the Alcohol Act (1102/2017), which states that an alcoholic beverage means a substance containing alcohol intended for drinking which contains a maximum of 80% ethyl alcohol by volume. Section 3, subsection 1(1) of the Alcohol Act states that an alcoholic substance or product contains more than 1.2% ethyl alcohol by volume.
Validity and supervision
The obligations and restrictions laid down in and under section 58 (a) of the Communicable Diseases Act apply to all regions, including the Åland Islands. The Government has a legal obligation to monitor the validity of the conditions for restrictions. Based on the epidemic situation and experiences gained, restrictions on the opening hours of shops and other facilities have gradually been alleviated.
Restaurants have a primary and self-supervising responsibility to comply with the restrictions and objectives set out in the legislation. One of the objectives of the temporary restrictions is to develop operating models based on independent measures and plans in restaurant operations to prevent the spread of the infectious disease in restaurants when the restrictions are gradually alleviated.
The official supervision of the obligations imposed on restaurants will be implemented in accordance with the powers granted to the Regional State Administrative Agency in the Communicable Diseases Act, in cooperation with other authorities. The guidelines have been collected on the Regional State Administrative Agencies' website avi.fi.
The Regional State Administrative Agencies take the principle of proportionality into account in their supervision and do not take measures that are broader than the intended objective. The objective is to ensure the lawfulness of operations and the safety of customers in terms of preventing the spread of the infectious disease by means of guidelines and regulations.
Updated on 13 January 2022
Plan to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease among customers
The guidelines are valid until 30 June 2022.
These instructions have been drawn up in accordance with the Government Decree on temporarily restricting the operations of restaurants to prevent the spread of an infectious disease, issued under section 58 (a) of the Communicable Diseases Act.
These instructions do not replace a restaurant's other self-supervision plans. These premises will be subsequently referred to as restaurants.
The business owner of a restaurant is obligated to draw up a plan to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease among customers.
Restaurants must clearly inform their customers that no-one may enter the premises with symptoms matching coronavirus infection, such as coughing, throat pain, fever or shortness of breath.
The restaurant must ensure that:
- the customers have a clearly visible possibility to wash or disinfect their hands when arriving at the restaurant;
- any furniture, dishes, cutlery and other customer contact surfaces and objects are kept clean so that they do not create a risk of spreading the infectious disease;
- the customers have clearly visible instructions for cleaning their hands, for maintaining a safe distance to others, and other instructions for preventing the spreading of the infectious disease within the premises.
Restaurants must organise the structures and furniture of their indoor and outdoor facilities and determine customer service practices to ensure that customers are not exposed to the infectious disease.
Restaurants must ensure in particular that there is no unnecessary crowding in its premises and that the arrival of customers in the restaurant is carried out so that a sufficient distance between customers and groups is maintained.
Customers are taken in at any one time so that there is enough room in the customer premises (both indoors and outdoors).
The prevention of crowding must be taken into account (e.g. bar counters and washroom queues).
Plan content requirements:
- A description of the policies adopted by the restaurant in order to comply with the general obligations.
- A description of the indoors and outdoors premises of the restaurant and a description of the measures and instructions given to staff for implementing the other obligations laid down in section 58 (a) of the Communicable Diseases Act and supervising their implementation indoors and outdoors at the restaurant.
- Information on the person responsible for the implementation of the plan in the restaurant.
Information on the person responsible for the plan must be provided to customers on request.
NOTE: The person's name is not added to the plan visible to customers; the name is provided to customers only upon request.
The plan is considered to be visible to customers if its summary is visible to customers when they enter the restaurant and it states that customers have the right to see the plan upon request. The plan may be combined with self-supervision plans referred to in the Alcohol Act, the Food Act (23/2006) and the Tobacco Act (549/2016).
Customers must follow restaurant policies and instructions given by staff. If a customer does not comply, the restaurant staff have the right to remove the customer from the premises under the Act on accommodation and restaurant operations (308/2006, section 5).
The Regional State Administrative Agency supervises the compliance with requirements and restrictions. If shortcomings or flaws are found in the compliance with obligations or restrictions, the Regional State Administrative Agency may issue the restaurant with an order to correct them. The order must include a time limit for taking the necessary measures. If the shortcomings have not been rectified within the given time or if obligations have been substantially violated, the Regional State Administrative Agency may order the restaurant to cease any service operations immediately and to be closed to customers for a maximum of one month.