Fishers to limit bar, restaurant hours for 2 weeks beginning Dec. 25

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The Fishers Health Department announced a new public order Tuesday that will limit the evening hours of dining and drinking establishments over the holidays and into next year.

The department said it would forbid restaurants, bars, taverns, nightclubs and any other business providing in-person food or drink from serving customers on-site between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., from Dec. 25 until Jan. 8.

The department’s statement explicitly says that the health department is trying to “curb New Year’s Eve gatherings” as the city deals with record numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Carry-out orders will still be allowed during the overnight hours, but businesses must be cleared of all customers to help reduce the potential for COVID-19 transmission.

According to the city, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the first two weeks of December (1,363) was 40% higher than the number of new cases identified during the first two weeks of November (982).

“(T)rends in positive cases indicate Fishers is likely to experience a continued period of growth in new positive cases through January 2021,” the statement said.

The Fishers Health Department’s team of inspectors will enforce the public health order. To assist the team in identifying businesses that are out of compliance, the city is hosting a form for reporting COVID-19 violations on its website.

Previous health and safety measures are still in effect, including orders to wear a mask when in an indoor space other than a private residence, or when outdoors in a situation where a distance of six feet cannot be maintained.

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34 thoughts on “Fishers to limit bar, restaurant hours for 2 weeks beginning Dec. 25

  1. This should really help? Right? I never thought in my wildest dreams that people in this country, indeed, Indiana would become this mentally bankrupt. Treatment for those that catch the virus is the best course but that is too simple, I guess. Just in; San Francisco just reported that 4 times more people have died there of drug overdoses in that city this year than have died from COVID.

    1. You’re funny Ed. I just had to close my business. I’ll be in debt the rest of my life. This is serious business for everyone out there risking everything so you can feed your pie hole. I hope your employer doesn’t have to close over a virus where almost everyone that gets it recovers.

  2. It’s about trampling all’s First Amendment Rights of freedom of assembly and speech.

    Notice how the attacks are on the restaurants, bars, and churches. The 3 main places personal conversation and dialogue happen.

    If their slave muzzles they’ve imposed and legislated on our faces actually worked, we would be nearly COVID free and protected no matter where we were.

    But again we know their is a lot of fraud in those numbers they wield their power over they refuse to allow any audits of.

    These tyrants just love and get off on their power trips!

    Keep an eye on these tyrants and be quick to use the rules and laws they impose on us when you catch them in their hypocrisy!!!

    1. Huh. Pretty sure you’re still free to discuss your wacko conspiracy theories here and plenty of other places online.

  3. Wow–you all do know that limiting bar hours is simply recognizing the fact that the longer bars are open the more likely that people drink too much and do not socially distance. You can disagree that works, but it really is that simple. No grand conspiracy here.

    1. 1.4% of cases come from bar, restaurants. Maybe not conspiracy, but definitely conceived by morons, and it’s spreading.

    2. Doug, can you please provide a link to your statistics? I’m unable to find this data based on what Indiana releases to the public, but I have a very hard time believing your 1.4% figure. Where I live, bars/restaurants were responsible for 20% of community outbreaks before they were shut down again.

    3. Wesley he can’t because he made it up… Marion County came to Hamilton County when they were locked down, time to return the favor for those of you who can’t stand to be alone & have to go drink into the wee hours. It’s 2 weeks, not 2-years.

    4. Hey, RE…… 2 weeks is a whole bi-weekly payroll cycle for business owners. You ever have to write a personal check to cover payroll? How much savings do you have to be able to continue to do that? I’m tired of all the idiots who think it’s nothing to limit hours or order businesses to shut down, any length of time. We’ve been at this for almost a year. FACT: ALMOST EVERYONE WHO ACTUALLY GETS THIS VIRUS RECOVERS.

    5. Charles, tell that to all the people in Indiana’s ICUs and on ventilators. I’m sure they are really happy their bar-hopping children and grandchildren will survive to bury them after COVID kills them.

    6. Charles, I am sorry you had to close your business and the government refused to help you in this time. All of these business closures are unnecessary and sad.

    7. Except for Steak & Shake. Biglari is an awful businessman who has run a great chain that into the ground and it’s entirely his fault.

    8. I will bet that Mayor Fadness and Mayor Brainard will have themselves and their staff vaccinated before those that are immunocompromised. Selfish and ignorant, but typical of politicians. Let’s see what they decide.

  4. I feel better letting politicians making all my personal decisions.
    They are superior to us, right?
    We can’t be trusted to make our own choices.
    What could go wrong? Mao and Stalin cared for their people, right?
    Wait, someone is knocking on my door. Be right back….

  5. I feel a or dumber having read these comments. Are masks perfect? No. Do they help reduce transmission? Almost assuredly.

    Are people in bars at 1 am more likely to share their infections (SARS and COVID). Yup, without a doubt.

    I feel sorry for the restaurants, I really do. But you’ve also chosen a line of business with a very high failure rate. (I know from family, from looking into it for myself and from statistics.). This is just one more wrinkle for those businesses.

    So mask up, get vaccinated and quit perpetuating bogus information. We’ll all be better off when this is behind us. And perhaps there will be some better restaurants that take the place of the chaff that fail.

  6. I feel a or dumber having read these comments. Are masks perfect? No. Do they help reduce transmission? Almost assuredly.

    Are people in bars at 1 am more likely to share their infections (SARS and COVID). Yup, without a doubt.

    I feel sorry for the restaurants, I really do. But you’ve also chosen a line of business with a very high failure rate. (I know from family, from looking into it for myself and from statistics.). This is just one more wrinkle for those businesses.

    So mask up, get vaccinated and quit perpetuating bogus information. We’ll all be better off when this is behind us. And perhaps there will be some better restaurants that take the place of the chaff that fail.

    Zzzzzzz

    1. I’m so glad you flippantly dismiss restaurants and bars. Yes they took on a business that have a high failure rate. That is the risk they take. They also pay a lot in taxes, pay a lot in hard costs and pay a lot in insurance to cover a situation just like this. I know several restaurateurs who have failed because of forced closures, forced business hours and no Government help for businesses like Restaurants where employee costs aren’t the majority of their issues.

      Speaking of the so called chaff that fail. McDonalds and Burger King and all of the bad fast food restaurants are thriving. The great restaurants and bars that have helped transform this city are the ones that are failing. One of my restaurateur friends have closed a James Beard nominee restaurant that was thriving pre-COVID. Many great restaurants that had a thriving business were crushed under the weight of forced closures and insurance companies refusing to payout on signed contracts covering shut downs.

      Picking up the pieces will take years to get the quality restaurants back. Indianapolis and surrounding areas are worse for it.

    2. The restaurants were not going to make it with the amount of the population who took the virus seriously and stopped going to them. They needed help starting nine months ago that should have continued through next spring, at least.

      That help needed to come from the federal government and it failed because the Republican Party wasn’t interested. That’s the bottom line. The stimulus now isn’t enough, just like it wasn’t enough in 2009…

  7. I don’t know what about my comment was flippant, but a few points: a lot of failed restaurants stiff the state when they go out of business without paying their taxes…easier to let those payments slip than it is rent or purveyors. McDs and BK: there’s no shortage of bad taste. And the restauranteurs need to band together to, hopefully, convince the courts that COVID was not force majeure but a failure of the government, plain and simple. Stronger leadership (and smarter citizens) could have lessened the effects of this pandemic.

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