State officials dangled the possibility of further mitigation efforts Monday, citing future COVID-19 dangers.

“Over the course of the past two weeks, unfortunately, Pennsylvania's situation became even more dire,” said Gov. Tom Wolf in a news conference Monday. “If we don't slow the spread of this virus right now, the reality is that COVID-19 will overwhelm our health care and hospital system.”

While no new orders or actions were taken by state officials Monday, there was an admission that the additional efforts taken about two weeks ago were ineffective. Officials also did not indicate where further mitigations would be directed.

Wolf and state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said that rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have dictated their thoughts regarding more mitigation efforts in the near future.

“We are looking at all sorts of issues right now, and very shortly we will come back with more recommendations,” Wolf said.

While more mitigation tactics appear to be on the horizon, Wolf confirmed the new measures would not look as drastic as they did in the spring, a time when more unknown variables guided their decision-making.

“We can be much more targeted. I don't see the red, yellow green as being remotely appropriate at this point,” Wolf said.

Hospitalization rates continued to rise Monday with 5,300 people statewide who are in the hospital due to COVID-19. Of those inpatients, 1,107 are being treated in intensive care units.

According to Monday's report by Butler Health System, Butler Memorial Hospital has 46 confirmed inpatients with COVID-19 and one who is awaiting test results. Of the 47 inpatients, 12 are being treated in its intensive care unit.

“We remain extremely concerned due to the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19,” Levine said.

Levine also commented on percent positivity rates statewide. According to the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard, every county has a percent positivity rate above 5%. Nine counties have percent positivity rates above 20%.

The dashboard showed Butler County's percent positivity rate is 12.8%, and its daily hospitalization rate increased by 9.7 instances per day.

According to a collection of daily data, the county has averaged about 83 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 per day.

Monday's two-day report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health showed additions for Sunday of 110 confirmed cases, and Monday had 75 confirmed cases.

The county also saw zero COVID-19-related deaths Sunday and three on Monday added to its data. The county's death toll as of Monday was 95 with 67 of those deaths since Nov. 1.

“There is widespread community transmission throughout Pennsylvania,” Levine said. “This is the fall resurgence that we've discussed.”

Wolf and Levine both said the resurgence has added strain to health care systems across the state, and threatened the state's goal of keeping those systems from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.

Maureen Casey, a nurse at Hershey Medical Center, was asked to illustrate that point. Casey described her hospital's environment as a seemingly endless bout with the virus.

“Like waves on the shore, it just keeps coming,” she said. “Please wear a mask. It's a simple thing, but it gets the job done.”

Wolf said regardless of any new mitigation orders or actions in the future, residents need to take accountability. Residents should wear a mask, wash their hands and refrain from gatherings large or small.

“Doctors and nurses are frightened right now, and they're asking us for help. We cannot afford to take our medical professionals for granted,” Wolf said. “All 13 million Pennsylvanians have to take this seriously.”