Bars to stop serving at midnight in Montreal and across Quebec

UPDATE: Health Minister Christian Dubé announced in a press briefing today that bars and nightclubs in Montreal and across Quebec must stop serving alcohol at midnight instead of the usual last call close to 3 a.m., effective tomorrow, Friday, July 10. Patrons will have an hour to vacate the bars, which must then close by 1 a.m.

Dubé also said that bars and nightclubs must limit their capacity to 50 per cent. Bars, restaurants, cinemas and other indoor gathering places in Montreal and the rest of Quebec are already limited to a maximum of 50 people seated indoors. He stressed that dancing remains prohibited — patrons must stay seated — and asked clients to cooperate in contact tracing efforts by signing a (voluntary) customer registry. The contents of registries, he said, are for the eyes of public health authorities only.

The alternative to this compromise, Dubé said, is closing bars entirely.

This development comes after the Dix30 bar Mile Public House became the source of a COVID-19 outbreak in the South Shore. New positive cases of COVID-19 in Quebec went above 100 today, for the first time in 10 days, Dubé said. ■

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