Restaurants and coronavirus
Regional State Administrative Agencies' guidelines support restaurants in the implementation of the current restrictions.
2. Guidelines for restaurant customers
Do not enter a restaurant when you have symptoms
The restaurant must inform its customers in a clearly visible way that a person with symptoms matching coronavirus infection may not enter the restaurant. Coronavirus causes a respiratory tract infection: symptoms include coughing, throat pain, fever, shortness of breath, muscle pain, stomach problems and headache.
Hand hygiene for restaurant customers
Customers must be able to wash or disinfect their hands when entering the restaurant. Customers are reminded of hand washing with signs that guide customers to a hand washing station or indicate the possibility for customers to sanitise their hands. The hand washing station must be equipped with warm running water, liquid soap and a way to dry hands (e.g. hand paper towels, cloth towel dispenser) and a waste container for hand towels. The cleanliness of washrooms and the hand washing station must be ensured sufficiently frequently. Customers are instructed on correct hand washing technique.
Hand washing instructions
- Wet your hands with a lot of water
- Apply soap and rub your hands palm to palm
- Rub the backs of your hands, your thumbs and between your fingers
- Rub your hands together with your fingers interlaced
- Rinse your hands with a lot of water
- Dry your hands carefully with a paper towel
- Use a paper towel to turn off the tap
Illustrated instructions
Using hand sanitiser
- Take about a tablespoon of sanitiser in your hand
- Carefully rub your fingertips, thumbs and between your fingers
- Finally, rub the sanitiser on your palms and the backs of your hands
- Rub until your hands are dry
Sanitisers with an alcohol content of at least 70% are recommended. If another active substance than alcohol is used, it must be approved by the chemical authority.
Avoid crowding the hand washing station.
Coughing instructions
- Cover your mouth and nose with a disposable tissue when coughing or sneezing.
- If you don't have a handkerchief, cough or sneeze onto the upper part of the arm of your sweater, not into your hands.
- Immediately put the used handkerchief in the rubbish bin.
Reminder to maintain a safe distance to other customers
Customers must be provided with instructions on maintaining a safe distance to others and on other measures to prevent the spread of the infectious disease in the restaurant.
Cleaning premises and washing cutlery and dishes
Maintaining the hygiene of facilities, surfaces and different equipment is important to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. All customer contact surfaces (e.g. door handles, handrails, chairs, high chairs and table surfaces, payment terminals and washrooms) should be cleaned carefully and as often as possible. Dishes and cutlery must be thoroughly cleaned so that infectious diseases cannot spread through them. In customer facilities, the frequency of cleaning must be increased, especially with regard to various buttons.
For more information on enhanced cleaning in customer spaces, see the website of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
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.