Gov. Jared Polis is expected on Friday to extend an executive order requiring bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol, but modifying it to give businesses an extra hour. Sources have told Colorado Politics that “last call for alcohol,” under the executive order on Friday, is likely to be 11 p.m., an hour later than the current executive order allows.

But that’s unlikely to be late enough for bar and restaurant owners who had hoped to keep their alcohol sales flowing as sports playoffs continue late into the evening. Some Colorado Avalanche games, for example, don’t start until 8:30 p.m., and with overtime could go to midnight.

Polis originally issued the executive order on “last call” on July 21, which required any establishment selling alcohol to stop doing so at 10 p.m. But two days later, the order was amended to allow liquor stores to continue selling until midnight.

Bar and restaurant owners cried foul, claiming they, too, should be able to keep serving alcohol after 10 p.m. The Tavern League of Colorado filed a lawsuit against Polis, first seeking a temporary restraining order. A Denver District Court judge denied the order, and the lawsuit will continue on to a trial.

Polis claimed, in issuing the order, that young people ages 20 to 29 who become inebriated at bars and restaurants are less likely to wear masks or properly socially distance themselves. He has said his executive orders are based on science but has not cited proof that an earlier “last call order” would limit the spread of the virus among young people.

In the hearing on the executive order lawsuit, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment pointed to an outbreak at a Michigan bar as evidence. 

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, CDPHE’s executive director, testified during the hearing that a last call order is not consistent with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a July 21 news conference, Polis said alcohol does not cause COVID-19, but that the “state of inebriation in a public place is inconsistent with social distancing.” He has hinted that he would change the order if cases of COVID-19 among the 20- to 29-year age group showed a decline.