According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, the purpose of the new decision is to make the current regulations for malls, shopping centers and department stores similar: Swedes are encouraged to shop one by one - and should not eat together in these places.

"We should not have groups of people walking around in shops and contributing to increased congestion if they are not there to shop," said CEO Johan Carlson at Wednesday's press conference.

Removes chairs

Ikea has previously removed the tables from its cafes, introduced extra cleaning and special restaurant hosts.

And now it is one chair and person per table that applies.

- We will partly inform on our website and in our department store, but we will above all have a restaurant host who receives all customers, says Mattias Hennius, press officer at Ikea.

In addition, the company encourages its customers to shop online.

In March last year, the restaurants in all 20 department stores in Sweden were closed.

But there are no plans to repeat.

- Then we were in a completely different situation with a completely different preparedness.

"Some ambiguities"

At Gekås Ullared in Falkenberg, those responsible during the weekend had meetings to review how the seven different restaurants are affected by the decision.

- We are working to adapt to the restrictions so that we can open in a good and safe way, says CEO Patrik Levin.

The Gallerian in Stockholm is reviewing how to proceed.

- There is still some ambiguity in how the new regulations will be interpreted, which we hope to clarify soon, says Henriette Johansson, head of urban space and retail at AMF Fastigheter.

Exceptions for parents and children

In Kista mall north of the city, caretaker Bianca da Costa informed visitors over the weekend about the tightened corona rules.

- I think it will be quite hard on Monday, when people start to understand.

Because now they have just landed in the four-person rule and keep it pretty well, she tells SVT News.

Children or other persons in need of support are not covered by the new rule.

In addition to limited food service, the decision also includes the previously announced proposal that all service points should close at 20.30, regardless of whether they sell alcohol or not.

This will apply until 11 April.