Pritzker signs bill to extend cocktails-to-go until 2024, also allows bars and restaurants to offer free drink to COVID vaccinated adults

UPDATED from sun-times.com:

Illinois residents who got their vaccine shot can now get a shot — or a beer or other alcoholic beverage of their choice — under a bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday signed into law.

Pritzker said the bill, which takes effect immediately, offers “our hardest-hit businesses another lifeline as we recover from the pandemic.”

From Chicago Tribune – The cocktails-to-go law prompted by the pandemic would be extended for three more years, and bars and restaurants would be able to give a free drink to people who’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus under a measure overwhelmingly approved Sunday in the Illinois Senate.

The measure, which was approved previously in the House and next goes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, would allow businesses to continue serving cocktails — and now single servings of wine — for takeout and delivery until Jan. 3, 2024. The existing state law is set to expire Wednesday.

” ‘A shot for a shot,’ ‘a shot and a beer,’ it’s got many permutations, but it’s designed to help people get vaccinated,” sponsoring state Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat, said Thursday before the House approved the measure with broad bipartisan support.