Now Pennsylvania alcohol sales to stop at 5 p.m. day before Thanksgiving in bars, restaurants — and many are fed up with 'stripping of rights'

On top of Pennsylvania officials already mandating strict
COVID-19 restrictions applying to Thanksgiving such as

required wearing of masks when multiple families gather in private
homes, the powers that be in the state added more to the
merriment Monday.

Such as?

For starters, Pennsylvania restaurants and bars are ordered to
suspend alcohol sales at 5 p.m. Wednesday — the day before
Thanksgiving — until 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning,

KDKA-TV reported.

The very early last call likely won’t make for very festive
happy hours around the Keystone State once work lets out.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said the Wednesday before Thanksgiving
is the “biggest day for drinking” and acknowledged bars and
restaurants have been hit hard by the pandemic — but that this
one-night ban is necessary, the station reported.

“The thing that we can’t do is ignore reality and say, ‘Yeah,
you folks, for no fault of your own, have been hit hardest by this
virus.’ But the virus is what’s doing this. It’s not me. It’s not
the administration. It’s not the government,” Wolf said in regard
to the 5 p.m. alcohol sales cutoff time, KDKA noted.

Wolf also said
police will step up enforcement efforts and “issue citations and
fines, and possibly undertake regulatory actions for repeat
offenders.”

Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said other mitigation
measures are “targeted protections for businesses and gatherings,”
an advisory for Pennsylvanians to stay at home, and enforcements on
public health orders like the recently strengthened mask mandate,
the station reported.

How are folks reacting?

It appeared that while some Twitter commenters were in favor of
the new restrictions, quite a few others seemed fed up with it
all:

• “I don’t even drink and this is wrong,” one user
  wrote.
  “What’s the science behind this?”
• “Seriously what is your f***ing problem? You are a f***ing
  a**hole! This will destroy a huge night for business!” another user
  noted.
• “Why?!?! This s**t is getting crazy,” another commenter
  said.
  “What’s the SCIENCE with this stripping of rights???”
• “Maybe the liquor stores could just self-identify all their
  stock as Root Beer,” another user quipped.
• “Will there be a special stimulus for all the service employees
  who were counting on a big night like Thanksgiving Eve to make up a
  bit for all the losses they’ve already taken?” another commenter
  asked.
• “The raw and arbitrary exercise of power is an intoxicant,”
  another user declared.
• “How people continue to vote for Democrats is beyond me,”
  another commenter wrote.

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