Updated on January 29, 2021 at 6:57 pm NBC Universal, Inc. Next week, Maine will follow Massachusetts in allowing businesses to stay open past an early closing time for the first time in months. Maine's 9 p.m. business curfew has been in place since before Thanksgiving, when Gov. Janet Mills implemented it as a way to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading over the holidays. “The early closing time was aimed at reducing the higher rate of COVID-19 transmission,” she said Thursday, adding that “Maine is beginning to round that corner on that post-holiday surge.” As of Thursday, the state’s seven-day PCR positivity rate was 3.64%.