Restaurants and other food and beverage service businesses must be closed to customers from March 9, 2021.

As of Tuesday, the tables of restaurants and cafeterias will stay empty. Photograph: Tony Öhberg/Finland Today

On Monday, Parliament approved and the president confirmed the act that will close restaurants and other food and beverage businesses to customers for three weeks in many areas.

The act came into effect on Monday night.

Restaurants stay closed until March 28 with their doors ajar for takeaway and delivery.

The seats stay empty in areas where the government and health authorities (THL) have found it necessary to aim to slow the spreading of the coronavirus pandemic, namely in areas classified as being in the acceleration or community phase. The rules also apply to Central Finland because the “epidemiological indicators there are similar to an area in acceleration phase,” as the government noted in a statement.

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Restaurants stay shut in the following regions:

   Uusimaa

    Southwest Finland

    Satakunta

    Kanta-Häme

    Pirkanmaa

    Päijät-Häme

    Kymenlaakso

    South Karelia

    South Savo

    Central Finland

    South Ostrobothnia

    Ostrobothnia

    Northern Ostrobothnia

    Lapland

    Åland

The following areas are excluded from the closure: North Karelia, Central Ostrobothnia, Kainuu and North Savo.

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