Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON — Bars, restaurants and other nonessential businesses will be allowed to stay open an extra two hours on weekends, under the COVID-19 executive order issued by Mayor Andre Sayegh on Friday.

The order extends the closing time from 10 p.m. until midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, while the 10 p.m. shutdown will remain in effect the rest of the week.

Prior to the pandemic, bars in Paterson were allowed to stay open to 3 a.m. on weekends. Sayegh said some people wanted him to allow the bars to return to their former closing time.

But he said he chose to ease the restriction instead of eliminating it because the city continues to have large numbers of people getting infected. He noted Paterson had 156 new positive cases one day this past week.

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