As restaurants and bars opened up on Monday morning, a lot of confusion was seen over the timings. Later in the day, the Tourism and Excise department's principal secretary Valsa Nair Singh confirmed that all eateries, including bars and permit rooms, were allowed to operate from 8 am till 10 pm till further orders. In pre-COVID times some of them would remain open till early morning hours and others till about midnight. However, late night dining has become a thing of the past, at least for a while now.

The standard operating procedure issued by the government did not mention the working hours. The excise personnel were under the impression that their department's previous order regarding counter sales of liquor by retail shops till 7 pm would apply for bars as well.