California is letting you order cocktails and beer for pickup or have it delivered to your home during the coronavirus pandemic

• California is temporarily relaxing rules for bars, restaurants, and liquor stores to sell alcohol for pickup or delivery.
• The move is designed to boost sales as shelter-in-place orders have called for businesses to shutter and residents to stay indoors to contain the coronavirus.
• Businesses can sell pre-packaged alcohol as long as it has a lid or a cap.
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If you're a sheltering California resident getting homesick for your favorite bar, the state's alcoholic beverage agency wants to give you some relief: You can now call your bartender and order booze to-go.

On Thursday, California's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control announced that it was temporarily suspending a variety of laws governing the sale and distribution of alcohol as the state's 40 million residents are directed to remain indoors as much as possible to contain the coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19.

The "regulatory relief" is to help bars, restaurants, and liquor stores whose businesses have been significantly dampened as state and city officials call for residents to stay at home, and for nonessential businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area to close shop.

"This regulatory relief is designed to support the alcoholic beverage industry in its efforts to assist California in slowing the spread of the virus while assisting the industry in dealing with the economic challenges it is facing as a result,"the ABC said on its website.

Under the relaxed rule, some bars can now sell beer, wine and distilled spirits to go if the beverage is in a "manufactured, pre-packaged container."

Restaurants and other "bona fide eating places," meanwhile, can now sell beer, wine and pre-mixed drinks or cocktails to-go when sold in conjunction with meals for pick-up or delivery. The drinks must have a secured lid or cap without an opening for straws.

The directive also significantly loosens the rules around ordering alcohol for home delivery.

Bars and restaurants have been among the hardest hit businesses from the coronavirus outbreak and the government orders to close non-essential businesses in the San Francisco area.

San Francisco's restaurant and bar scenes are being slammed by the shelter at home order, with layoffs ensuing and sales plummeting. Mayor London Breed has introduced a number of ways to keep small businesses from going under, like ushering in a moratorium on commercial evictions. But business owners in the city don't think that will be enough.

"I would say about 50 percent of bars and restaurants are facing existential destruction," San Francisco bar owner Ben Bleimans told Eater SF.