Gov. Janet Mills is ending the early closing time the state required for some businesses in order to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the holidays.
Starting Monday, affected businesses, which include restaurants, movie theaters and casinos, no longer have to close by 9 p.m. Mills says the change is possible because of improving COVID-19 metrics in Maine.
“With the holiday season behind us and in light of these better figures, we are now prepared to end the 9 p.m. early closing time for businesses,” she says.
Maine’s positivity rate is 3.6%, down from nearly 6% a month ago.
Maine Center for Disease Control added 284 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. That number has steadily declined throughout the week.
This is the lowest number of new cases reported on a Thursday since Thanksgiving.
The Maine CDC reports five more people with the disease have died.
The state reports more than 120,000 vaccines have been distributed throughout the state.
