The state’s recent re-tightening of restrictions on bars, indoor dining, nightclubs and indoor gatherings is based on regional, statewide and national data, coupled with federal recommendations, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Thursday in a press conference, after a reporter complained that the administration isn’t sharing data on cases connected with particular establishments whose owners want proof they’re causing a problem.

Contact tracing in Pennsylvania has generated aggregate data that shows the types of places that have created a surge in cases near Pittsburgh and elsewhere are mainly those patronized by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and that individual businesses may be specified, but only if people remember where they were on a particular night, and not if they were in many different places, according to Dr. Levine.

“We don’t have tables saying this bar has (generated) this many patients,” Levine said, but it was clear that a “targeted” order prohibiting alcohol except with meals, limiting indoor dining to 25 percent of capacity and capping indoor gatherings at 25 people made sense, given what’s happening here and in states where it’s much worse — while matching the recommendations of White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, Levine said.

The administration will need to make an exception to the 25-person limit on indoor gatherings when schools open in about six weeks, Levine predicted.

“(But) we’ll see what the guidance is at that time,” she said.

For now, the goal is for schools to open with students physically present, although many school districts are planning hybrid setups, Levine said.

The situation will need to be looked at county-by-county, she said.

“We’re going to stay positive and optimistic,” she said when a reporter asked whether there’s a “mindset not to open in person.”

The prospect of school starting has created special urgency for compliance with mitigation efforts, the secretary said.

“It’s critical to drive down the case counts,” she said. “If we don’t do that now, it will put (reopening in person) in jeopardy.”

The administration’s COVID-19 strategies are evolving as the data and understanding evolves, Levine said. That evolution includes testing, which has increased to an average of 18,000 a day for the past month, with a high of 28,000 tests, she said.

The administration is pushing for even more.

It wants to ensure that everyone with symptoms can get tested, she said.

There’s nothing preventing those without symptoms to get tested also, she said.

There’s no barrier for asymptomatic testing especially with private firms like CVS and Rite Aid, although there are problems with delays due to the commercial labs those companies use being overwhelmed with demand, she said.

There’s also an issue with potential complacency, as a negative test one day doesn’t mean that a person several days later may not develop symptoms, she stated.

The Department of Health website has a listing of testing locations, she said.

Pennsylvania is currently threatened by increasing numbers of cases “coming up the eastern seaboard,” according to Levine.

The effort to track the situation here includes monitoring a variety of “subtle” early-warning indicators, including the positivity rate for testing.

The average for the most recent seven-day period is 4.4 percent, according to the DoH website.

But Thursday’s figure for Pennsylvania was 5.7 percent, Levine said.

In the southwest, which includes Allegheny County, it’s 7.3 percent, she said.

Without tracking indicators like positivity, there’s a danger that authorities respond too late to danger, and cases begin rising “exponentially,” she said.

“We’re not going to be Florida,” she said, citing one of the nation’s worst hot spots. “That’s why we acted last week.”

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.