Gov. Jared Polis on Friday said he will allow bars and restaurants in Colorado to serve alcohol until 11 p.m. starting on Saturday, but extend his last-call order earlier for at least another 30 days.
Polis last month required bars and restaurants to cut off alcohol service at 10 p.m. for a month in light of rising coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the state. He said booze was a common factor in the spread of the disease among young people.
“Hopefully it will give folks a little bit more breathing room,” Polis said of the extra hour during a briefing with reporters at the governor’s mansion in downtown Denver.
Bars and restaurants, furious about the limitation, sued Polis over the action, but a Denver District Court judge sided with the governor and kept the order in place.
Alcohol service in Colorado is typically allowed until 2 a.m. Bars and nightclubs in Colorado that don’t provide food service are still not allowed to be open.
“We’re now in a better place,” Polis said in explaining why he made the last-call change. “Our viral presence has gone down 30-40%.”
Dr. Rachel Herlihy, Colorado’s state epidemiologist, said that the last-call order was initially put in place to slow rapid spread of the disease among people ages 20 to 29 years old. The rate of increase, she said, has since decreased.
