Industries Adapt to Post-Quarantine Restrictions, As Finland Continues Travel Restrictions to Sweden
After emerging from under the prolonged lockout, industries begin to accommodate their services to quarantine restrictions. Their main goal is to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection.
If the world faces a second wave of the disease and goes into another quarantine, many sectors will not be able to recover. To avoid the worst-case scenario, all industries are making necessary changes in their businesses. Before returning to service, the cruise industry has rolled out new safety policies. Norwegian Cruise Line has just offered more information about what life on their ships would be in the post-quarantine period. Passengers will maintain social distancing, will wear face masks, and will have no buffet, at least not in the usual understanding of this concept.
The gambling industry is remodelling casinos to facilitate their embracement of new safety rules. Players walking into reopened casinos find them emptier than before the coronavirus pandemic. In order to keep physical distancing between players, casino operators let fewer people in and restrict the number of poker players to five. There are also plexiglass barriers shielding players from card dealers and bartenders. The same plexiglass covers tables and other flat areas so that they are cleaned more thoroughly. Even dices, cards, and chips are sanitized before being passed to another player. Many slot machines are not plugged in so that players do not gather in large crowds in a slot machine area.
Although Finland has not reopened its casinos yet, it also plans to use fewer slot machines, when they are reactivated on July 15. The Finnish government has recently announced its plans to remove about 8,000 slot machines from bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and gas stations. This is almost two times more than was planned a year ago. The more stringent measures will be introduced in July, because during the coronavirus pandemic, Finns have been gambling online with stronger enthusiasm and have made the government worry about increased problem gambling in the country. Recently created fast casinos, called in Finnish “pikakasinot,” and no registration casinos do not require registration and, by making the whole application process easier and quicker, attract more players to their services.
These casinos also offer a large variety of bonuses – welcome bonuses, free spin bonuses, no deposit bonuses, and reload bonuses, which make them even more alluring in the eyes of Finnish gamblers. The most popular no registration casinos among Finns are Afcasino, FastBet, SpeedyCasino, Kassu, Spela, and Zet. They gain in popularity because they give 100 percent welcome bonuses and up to 500 free spins. Although the Finnish government has recently lowered the maximum loss limit on online gambling to 500 euros, having this amendment in force until September 30, it strongly encourages Finnish people to wager on Veikkaus’s gambling websites. It applies its quarantine restrictions solely to land-based slot machines. To keep coronavirus in check, the government intends also to set up acrylic glass barriers between slot devices and distribute hand sanitizers to players.
The airline sector is also adapting to quarantine restrictions. As soon as aeroplanes started flying again, the industry introduced restrictions in airports. When they enter the arrival or departure areas, people need to cover their faces, keep physical distancing, and wash their hands in sanitizers that are established now throughout airports’ premises. Floors are polished now more often and thoroughly. Flights are fewer than in the pre-quarantine period. Finland is presently sending aeroplanes mostly to cities located within the Schengen area. Finns can now board aeroplanes heading to Oulu, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Oslo, Amsterdam, Tallinn, Riga, and Zurich. Finavia Ouj, the public limited airport operator, says that internal border control will be in place until the middle of June. It will also maintain restrictions for travelling outside the Schengen area and to neighboring Sweden.
That Finland decided on Thursday to maintain travelling restrictions to Sweden offended Swedish people but, considering their unorthodox approach to coronavirus, Finland’s decision is hardly surprising. The Swedish government’s choice not to impose lockdown in March has led to the unprecedented coronavirus outbreak in the country, the most severe among the Nordic nations. Sweden has so far reported more than 46,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Its death toll has reached 4,800. What is even more worrying is that the virus epidemic in Sweden shows no signs of subsiding. It was reported on Thursday last week that there were 252 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in Stockholm, with 79 people hospitalized in intensive care. Nine more people were diagnosed with coronavirus on Friday. It is understandable, then, that Finland, whose COVID-19 death rate is only 325 and who has gradually been lifting quarantine restrictions, is not recommending its citizens to travel to Sweden.
The Finnish administration hastened to assure the public on Thursday that Finland’s cooperation with Sweden was as strong as ever and that the government would continue giving a helping hand to its neighbor by sending Finnish nursing personnel to take care of Swedish patients.
