THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government will take a call on opening the bars in the state adhering to coronavirus protocol on Thursday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called an online meeting of various stakeholders which will be attended by Excise Minister, Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) MD, chief secretary, home secretary and others on Thursday. Earlier, the Excise department had sent a proposal to the chief minister asking to facilitate the opening of bars in the state.
If the proposal is accepted, the retail sale of liquor in bars will be stopped. Instead, the bars would be allowed to serve liquor on their premises under strict COVID safety protocol. Further, the proposal has suggestions to limit the services of the BevQ app -- introduced by Bevco as part of a virtual queue management system -- to liquor outlets owned by Bevco and Consumerfed for retail sale.
The proposal also emphasises the need to reduce seating capacity and the maintenance of social distancing norms, apart from regulating temperature inside halls. The move to reopen bars is in line with Central government guidelines issued for Unlock 4.0. Only two customers would be allowed at one table while thermal screening and use of hand sanitiser will be made mandatory.
If the proposal is accepted, a detailed advisory regarding the norms to be followed inside bars would be issued after the meeting. There are around 265 liquor outlets under Bevco, 36 outlets under Consumerfed, 576 bar hotels and 291 beer parlours in the state.