Altoona has become a hotbed in Blair County’s surge of coronavirus cases, and Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator Tim Hileman suggested the city and county adopt mitigation actions that were in place in late May.

Citing White House Coronavirus Task Force and Harvard Global Health Institute guidelines, Hileman recommended to City Council Monday that masks be mandated in all indoor spaces and worn by everyone outside the home; that schools resort to remote learning, that gatherings be limited to 25 people, that gyms be limited to 25 percent of capacity, that restaurants limit indoor dining to situations where strict social distancing can be maintained and otherwise serve customers outdoors and by takeout; and that bars be closed.

It wouldn’t surprise him to see state government reimpose those kinds of restrictions, Hileman said.

The city has had a total of 854 infections during the pandemic, with almost half — 402 — since mid-October, Hileman said.

On Oct. 23, the state broke 2,000 new cases in a day for the first time. On Friday, it surged past 3,000, then Saturday, past 4,000, according to the state Department of Health.

Blair County has been contributing an unhealthy share of those infections, with a total of 182 from Saturday through Monday — including a record 90 on Sunday.

In the past week alone in Altoona, there were 326 new cases, almost twice the 170 for the previous week, Hileman said.

“It’s alarming,” he said.

The positivity rate for the city rose to 8 percent in the past week, 3 percentage points past the threshold for concern and up from 5.6 percent the previous week.

The city’s incidence rate for the past week — the number of new cases per 100,000 people — nearly doubled to 266, Hileman reported.

Twelve Blair Countians have died in the past three weeks, bringing the total to 35, according to the DoH.

It adds up to a situation that should bring the city and county back to mitigation levels like those that applied when Blair was in the state’s “yellow” category, between May 15 and June 3, according to Hileman.

DoH officials recently took a look at Blair in an effort to determine the main driver of the outbreak, and found nothing in particular, according to Hileman.

Rather, it’s generalized “community spread,” he said.

“It’s everywhere.”

In the past, people in this area could stay fairly safe by avoiding “pockets and clusters” where the virus was known to be thriving, said Dr. David Burwell, chief quality officer for UPMCs Altoona, Bedford, Somerset and Western Maryland, who was on a conference call for the council meeting.

Not anymore, Burwell said.

While there is not apparent focus driving the outbreak, there seems to be a type of behavior behind it, according to Hileman: an apparent widespread carelessness about quarantining and isolation, with people complying for several days, growing tired of the routine, then going back to work and out into the public, he said.

“I couldn’t agree more with this assessment,” Burwell said of Hileman’s analysis and warnings.

Authorities are predicting a vaccine will be coming, perhaps as early as the end of the year, but “we can’t throw caution to the winds,” Burwell said.

Even after the vaccine arrives, it will take a while before high-priority recipients receive it, then another while before recipients generate antibodies, he said.

“This is not a time to be lax,” Burwell said. “You can really just be lax within your own household.”

Any place where people are congregating, especially where there are multiple people unmasked, is unsafe, Hileman said, citing schools, churches and football games.

“This is real,” Hileman said. “It’s not going away.”

Council considered but did not decide to withhold a permit for the Greater Altoona Economic Development Corp.’s traditional Christmas parade — with some members expressing reluctance at nixing such an event.

Council instead suggested the decision whether to hold it should rest with GAEDC — adding that the organization should make arrangements to ensure the safety of participants and spectators.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.