Bars And COVID-19: Can Safety Guidelines Work?

“Bars: really not good, really not good,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease expert, told a Senate committee hearing on COVID-19 in late June. “Congregation at a bar, inside, is bad news.”

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A required 10 p.m. cutoff for serving alcohol in bars has put Georgia’s best-known college town in the cross-hairs of a COVID-19 debate.

Should states or local governments shut down bars to curb the coronavirus surge? Short of that, should they limit bars’ hours?

The Athens-Clarke County Commission recently passed an ordinance requiring that bars have their last call for alcohol at 10 p.m. Previously, the rule in the area was generally a 2 a.m. last call.