Mayor Kirk Caldwell said this afternoon that he is asking Gov. David Ige for permission to shut down Oahu bars for three weeks to allow the city time to assess and “recalibrate” how they can be regulated to make operations less vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19.

Caldwell said today he will also ask Ige to require everyone on Oahu wear facial coverings everywhere — indoors and outdoors — except when at home, and that social gatherings be limited to 10 people or less.

Caldwell’s plan, even before his announcement, drew a sharp rebuke from the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, who urged the mayor and governor to not close bars.

“The decision to close all bars would add to the pain of too many business owners who are complying with guidelines,” said Sherry Menor-McNamara, chamber president and CEO.

Caldwell first clamped down on alcohol service two weeks ago, when he got the OK from Ige to halt the sale, service and consumption of alcohol in both bars and liquor-serving restaurants, at midnight.

Pre-COVID-19, those with bar licenses are allowed to serve alcohol until 2 a.m. while those with cabaret licenses could serve until 4 a.m.

The order from two weeks ago gave Honolulu Liquor Commission the power to shut down bars for 24 hours if found to be in noncompliance and the commission did so on two occasions.

Over the weekend, Caldwell said the city was contemplating rolling back the alcohol cutoff time to 10 pm.

But on Monday, the state Department of Health announced that two separate Honolulu bars appeared to be the source of multiple infections and urged those who patronized them to contact their physicians. Caldwell said he learned that it appeared violations occurred during a televised sports event in the middle of the afternoon.

“It just made me realize that, given the number of cases we’re seeing, that we needed to take stronger action,” Caldwell said.

Recent incidents show “we continue to see evidence of a lack of compliance and now we have firm evidence of the spread of the virus due to bars not following the proper protocols,” Caldwell said. “People have been infected, from patrons to bartenders to bouncers to those who serve alcohol — it spread throughout the bar and they’re still trying to determined how many people have actually been affected.”

Restaurants that serve liquor will be able to continue operations — including serving alcohol until midnight.

Bars, however, cannot stay open just to sell food, he said.

Caldwell said he met with representatives from the Honolulu Police Department and the Liquor Commission today before making a final decision on a three-week bar closure.

The three-week period will “give us enough time, working with our liquor inspectors to (develop) a way to beef up our ability to inspect bars in a way that we can target if someone is not following the protocols.”

As for the modified face-covering rule, Caldwell said he wants clearance from Ige to mandate “face-coverings indoors everywhere except sitting at your desk and outdoors if you can’t practice proper physical distancing of six feet or less unless you put on a face covering.

The edict would apply to people in gyms, but not for those who are in the water, the mayor said.

“If it interferes with jogging, if it interferes with people playing a sport … then you either need to slow down your activity or stop doing it,” Caldwell said.

He added that he would rather not stop sports events now occurring amid the pandemic. “Just be careful and protect yourself.”