News File Photo Costumed participants collect candy during the 2019 Trunk or Treat in downtown Alpena.

ALPENA — With COVID-19 flying around as much as ghosts this Halloween, health officials and event planners are asking the community to follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines related to safe trick-or-treating, but haven’t canceled the scare night festivities all together.

The CDC has updated a series of guidelines related to Halloween and other holidays, such as Dia de los Muertos and Thanksgiving, advising Americans to monitor the community health and be aware of any capacity limits meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The agency also lists regular trick-or-treating as one of the higher-risk activities.

However, all hope is not lost. Trick-or-treating, when done in a safe way, is still possible.

Cathy Goike, a spokeswoman for District Health Department No. 4, said social distancing — staying at least six feet away from people who don’t live with you — is key to keeping everyone safe this Halloween season.

“Reducing your contact with other people is the safest way for this Halloween season,” Goike said.

Goike and a guideline sheet on the Health Department’s website said people can reduce contact by putting tables between trick-or-treaters and candy passers and sanitizing their hands frequently. Wearing a cloth mask — not a Halloween mask — is also suggested.

Goike said parents should talk to their children about the differences and how to keep themselves safe.

“It would just be very important for parents and families to discuss how Halloween might be a little different this year and the best ways to keep social distancing,” Goike said. “It’s very important for parents to talk to their kids about keeping a safe distance when going door to door.”

Local governments have allowed trick-or-treating to continue. The Alpena Municipal Council and the Rogers City City Council each set trick-or-treating hours for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Halloween night.

Joe Hefele, Rogers City city manager, said in an email to The News that city residents are responsible and know how to keep infection levels down.

“These are difficult times and, as a father myself, I know we are constantly trying to strike a balance between our desire to keep our families safe while providing our children with the most normal and happy childhood possible,” Hefele said. “By working together, being responsible, and being respectful of our neighbors I am sure we can continue to strike the balance that we have shown our community to be capable of time and again.”

While regular, door-to-door trick-or-treating is still on across Northeast Michigan, other Halloween events have been canceled.

The annual Trunk or Treat behind Alpena City Hall, hosted by WATZ and the Michigan State Police, for example, has been canceled. The event would have exceeded capacity limits if the 1,500 people seen in past years showed up again.

“We’re just trying to follow guidelines as best we can to keep people safe,” said Trooper Ashely Simpson of the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post.

Others, meanwhile, are trying to offer safe alternatives to the typical Halloween events.

The APlex, for example, has set up a system of roads at and around the APlex campus to make a drive-thru Trunk or Treat.

Elaine Webber, a spokeswoman for the APlex, said she has all three driveways around the Aplex to use for the drive-thru Trunk or Treat, including the Besser Co. World Headquarters, the Northern Lights Arena, and the APlex itself.

“What I’m going to be doing is that all the businesses or all the companies that are handing out candy, they’re going to be staged every two or three parking spots,” Webber said. “And then I’m asking all the people who are handing out candy to wear a mask and for people to approach the vehicles as they drive through.”

During the Trunk or Treat, parents will drive around a predetermined path while their kids hang their bags out the window for people to put candy in. That method eliminates most contact between the kids and the candy-passers.

Webber said she talked to both WATZ and the Michigan State Police before going ahead with plans after she found out about the first cancellation.

“And they said, ‘Of course, go ahead with it,'” Webber said. “So I called them back with what I came up with and they were in favor of it.”

If regular trick or treating is not viable, the CDC recommends scavenger hunts or virtual costume parties as safer alternatives.

In the last week, six Northeast Michigan have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus, while three more people recovered. Since the virus hit Michigan in mid-March, 211 Northeast Michiganders have been infected, of whom 17 have died and 172 have recovered.