![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'](https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/now-pennsylvania-alcohol-sales-to-stop-at-5-p-m-day-before-thanksgiving-in-bars-restaurants-and-many-are-fed-up-with-stripp.jpg?id=24802496&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C30%2C0%2C31)
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'How people continue to vote for Democrats is beyond me'
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.
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.
It appeared that while some Twitter commenters were in favor of the new restrictions, quite a few others seemed fed up with it all: