Govt adopts plan to lift coronavirus restrictions

The government at a meeting on Tuesday adopted a plan to lift the restrictions imposed to cope with the COVID-19 epidemic, said an official press release on Wednesday.

The government discussed the feedback received on the plan and made clarifications based on the comments.

Earlier, on 9 April, the government published a draft plan on the timetable for lifting the restrictions.

A survey was also conducted which found the majority of Finns were patient about the COVID-19 epidemic and the restrictions imposed to mitigate it.

Nine out of every 10 respondents understood and accepted that the restrictions differed from region to region due to regional differences in the epidemiological situation.

Half of the respondents thought the schedule for lifting the restrictions appropriate, while 27 per cent felt it was too rushed, and 19 per cent thought it was too slow. The majority of the respondents believed that the measures proposed in the plan would help society and businesses to recover from the crisis.

Based on the feedback, the government made several clarifications to its exit plan at the meeting. The targets set in the plan largely depend on the regional situation and the decisions made by the competent regional authorities.

The regional decision-making process will be taken into use in May. The restrictions on outdoor group hobbies for children and young people will be lifted in April.

From the beginning of June, outdoor competitions and other recreational events will resume, along with summer camps for young people. In addition, indoor leisure activities that do not involve close contacts will resume in June.

From the beginning of July, indoor competitions, events, and leisure activities that involve close contacts will restart.

Internal border control will continue for as long as is necessary. However, at the same time, the dismantling of restrictions on traffic will begin in the reverse order.

As of the beginning of May, restrictions on entry at the internal borders will be gradually replaced by health security measures at the borders. Traffic will first be opened up for border communities at the land borders between Finland and Sweden and between Finland and Norway.