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Several Chicago aldermen are calling for the city to mandate proof of vaccination for people visiting public indoor settings, a move already adopted in other cities like New York. The aldermen said they were writing in support of Chicago requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination “for persons visiting public indoor settings like restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms and concert halls,” according to a copy of the letter sent Thursday. New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco and Puerto Rico have issued such requirements, they noted.

Despite efforts from the Biden administration, just under half of the U.S. population is vaccinated at this point. With Delta now being the primary variant of new cases in the country and high transmissions of COVID-19 happening yet again, experts say it’s time to restore some restrictions. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, spoke with CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield about the rise in COVID-19 cases. According to Reiner and other experts, unvaccinated people shouldn’t go into bars and restaurants. “What I would say bluntly is: If you are not vaccinated right now...

There’s a gin joint in Denver by the name of Bar Max, and the owner has been up and running for more than a month after the government shutdown orders were lifted. Getting out ahead of the curve, owner Marshall Smith has been requiring proof of vaccination to drink indoors at his establishment since he reopened. And now, after the confusing new guidelines issued by the CDC, he’s allowing customers to go maskless in the bar, though again, they have to prove they’ve been vaccinated. To hear both Mr. Smith and his customers sharing their stories with the local CBS...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York’s restaurant service curfew will end next month for both indoor and outdoor dining areas, and that bar seating can return to New York City beginning May 3. Cuomo had already extended the food and beverage service curfew by an hour, to midnight. That will be lifted entirely for outdoor dining areas beginning May 17 and for indoor dining areas beginning May 31.

Last call is getting a little later. Gov. Cuomo on Sunday issued an executive order pushing the statewide curfew for bars, restaurants and other establishments with liquor licenses from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. “Hospitalizations and the positivity rate continue to decline, and with the holiday surge now in our rear-view mirror, we must keep taking steps to further re-open the economy safely and responsibly,” he said in a Sunday statement. The later curfew also applies to gyms and fitness centers, casinos and pool halls, his office noted. **SNIP** Cuomo’s new executive order comes as a growing number of Albany...

A group of Pennsylvania bars and restaurants is taking legal action against Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. over new coronavirus rules that will prohibit indoor dining during the holiday season. Co-counsels for the group filed a pair of court documents Friday, Troy Freedman, a lawyer for the businesses, told Fox News. One was a petition for review, a required first step when filing suit against state officials under Pennsylvania law, Freedman said. The other is seeking an injunction that would enjoin the governor from enforcing his order, which he issued last week. It went into effect on Dec....

Big Apple eatery owners — already struggling to cope with a second shutdown of indoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic — were thrown into a panic Thursday night when the Cuomo administration dropped new rules that barred patrons in outdoor spaces from using their indoor bathrooms. The initial guidance, released publicly by Kapil Longani, counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, stated that “customers are not allowed to enter the inside of an SLA-licensed establishment for any reason while the guidance is in effect.”

Small business owners are getting obliterated The first truck transporting Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine pulled out of a Michigan manufacturing plant on Sunday, and are expected to reach their destination on Monday so that health workers could administer the vaccine. Despite the overall optimism in the COVID-19 vaccine on its way to the American people, Bill Gates warns that the coronavirus pandemic is not even close to being over. "This vaccine work is phenomenal," Gates said last week at Singapore's FinTech Festival that was held virtually. "You know, we've been working with these pharma companies, they've been doing their best, you...

Hundreds of people on Wednesday night — including members of the right-wing group Proud Boys — protested the closure of a Staten Island bar that ignored COVID-19 restrictions. “Proud Boys in the house,” a handful of people chanted outside Mac’s Public House — the defiant pub that was shut down by authorities Tuesday night after operating without a license and in violation of health orders. One speaker led the crowd through the Proud Boy credo — “I am a proud Western Chauvinist” — before segueing into Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” The entrance of the pub was blocked on Wednesday...

Maryland is ramping up enforcement of coronavirus restrictions ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday as the pandemic surges just as people usually gather with family and socialize in bars, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday. In addition to family gatherings on the holiday itself, the night before Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest bar-hopping nights of the year as people return to their hometowns and catch up with old friends over drinks. “I cannot emphasize how reckless that behavior would be this year,” the Republican governor said during a news conference in the State House rotunda in Annapolis. Health officials already...

NEW YORK (AP) — Restaurants, bars and gyms will have to close at 10 p.m. across New York state in the latest effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. The governor said people will also be barred from hosting private gatherings with more than 10 people.

Diners in Michigan will be required to give their name and phone number to restaurants and bars starting Monday in an effort to contain a recent coronavirus surge, according to reports. The new rule was put in place by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday and also includes limiting indoor gatherings without fixed seating -- like in restaurants -- to 50 people and individual tables to six people, The Detroit News reported. The state set a record for new cases Thursday with 3,675, according to FOX 17 of Grand Rapids. Restaurants in the state currently operate...

The Biden campaign is taking flack for a recent television ad featuring a struggling Michigan bar owner that the ad neglects to mention is actually an affluent veteran tech investor who donated to the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign. Joe Malcoun, who is introduced in the ad as the “co-owner” of The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Mich., backed Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stringent lockdown orders that kept businesses shuttered for months but says he blames President Trump’s administration for his business’s pandemic woes. the ad does not mention Malcoun’s other business ventures, including being an “angel investor” in several...

A Wisconsin judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked an order from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration limiting the number of people who can gather in bars, restaurants and other indoor places ... The Democrat governor's order, issued by the Evers-appointed state health secretary Andrea Palm last week, limited the number of customers in many indoor establishments to 25% of capacity. Gatherings in indoor spaces without an occupancy limit were limited to 10 people. The order does not apply to colleges, schools, churches, polling locations, political rallies and outdoor venues. The Tavern League of Wisconsin, the powerful lobbying group for the state’s 5,000...

CORONAVIRUS IN NY Teachers union chief threatens legal action if de Blasio shuts down schools Coronavirus clusters in these NYC neighborhoods growing at an alarming rate It's past time to pull the plug on Andrew Cuomo's dictatorial pandemic powers State Liquor Authority's unjust enforcement deadly to lockdown-strained bars, eateries As many as half of all New York City bars and restaurants could shutter permanently within the next six months due to the coronavirus, according to a stunning new audit released Thursday by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The report lays bare the extent of the pandemic’s fiscal impact on one of...

ST. PETERSBURG — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday said bars and restaurants in Florida can open at full capacity as the state moved into the last phase of its reopening plan, which lifts all the state’s remaining coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses.

Legislation won state Senate approval on Tuesday that would relax some of the restrictions imposed on Pennsylvania’s restaurants and bars that have forced some of these establishments to close for good. House Bill 2513 would set minimum capacity for restaurants and taverns at a minimum of 50% and would allow them to go beyond that if their premises allows while complying with social distancing, masks and other safety precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state Department of Health. Further, it would remove Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration’s ban on bar services, allowing patrons to once again...

Throughout the COVID pandemic, it's become increasingly clear that certain types of businesses in particular can pose a serious COVID risk: those that are indoors with poor ventilation where people tend to gather close together. And while most states have now reopened the majority of businesses, Anthony Fauci, MD, the nation's leading immunologist, is warning that three specific businesses should stay closed amid COVID.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT/WTVF) - Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced the city will move forward with Phase Three of reopening starting Oct. 1, CBS affiliate WTVF reported. Bars and limited service restaurants increased their capacity starting Friday, Sept. 17. Cooper made the announcement during Thursday’s COVID-19 Metro weekly meeting saying, “we will learn from this phase to prepare for the next.” Bars and restaurants can resume service at 50% capacity, that is up to 50 people inside and 50 people outside, WTVF reported. Businesses can remain open until 11 p.m. “The markers of this next phase will be public school teaching...

Leaked emails between the senior adviser to Nashville's Mayor and a health department official reveal a disturbing effort to conceal extremely low coronavirus cases emanating from bars and restaurants, while the lion's share of infections occurred in nursing homes and construction workers, according to WZTV Nashville. On June 30th, contact tracing was giving a small view of coronavirus clusters. Construction and nursing homes causing problems more than a thousand cases traced to each category, but bars and restaurants reported just 22 cases. Leslie Waller from the health department asks “This isn’t going to be publicly released, right? Just info...