Why the continued focus on alcohol

The rules over the serving of alcohol indoors was applied across all the hospitality sector. The same rules applied to a licenced cafe as a pub or a michelin star restaurant. This had massive economic impact on the sector and was justified on the grounds that alcohol was likely to lead people to ignore the physical distancing rules, something I've not witnessed in the restaurants I would have used had they been open. All this did in many occasions was cause people to break the rules and have parties at home. Can we understand if this really did have a measurable effect on suppressing the virus, and was it worth the economic impact on the sector.

Many severe measures were implemented that affected individuals and specific economies and we should understand what worked and what didn't if we are to be able to tackle another highly contagious virus of this type in the future.