Butler County's streak of no new coronavirus cases has been broken.

According to the state Department of Health's daily report, four COVID-19 positive cases have been added to Butler County's total of 184.

The county's number of deaths remains at six, despite another Tuesday spike in deaths statewide. The state added 554 to its death toll.

Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine has attributed these spikes that typically come on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to a lag in reporting and the state's continued data consolidation efforts. She said state officials have recognized “this is really challenging for people to understand.”

She said the state is already working with its data system, and other data systems, including Philadelphia, to provide better consolidation on a daily basis in the future to prevent such large spikes in deaths.

“We're discussing those plans now,” Levine said. “We're going to work on a much smoother way to reconcile that data in the future.”

Butler County's four new cases breaks a three-day stretch in which its total positive cases remained at 180.

On April 21, there were 162 total positive cases in the county. This means in the last two weeks Butler County, which has a population of 180,000, has added 22 cases.

One of the core measurement used by state officials to determine whether an area is ready to move into yellow has been that the area would have to have fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 residents. While not the only metric under consideration, state officials have stressed it would be difficult to see a region reopening without passing that bar.

When Levine was asked whether the Department of Health would consider including the timing of the cases being tested, Levine responded with a statement that the state is doing the best it can to keep residents informed.

“I really feel that we've been transparent about the data we put out,” she said. “We are always looking to improve our data.”

When asked about Butler County's low numbers in new cases, Levine said the department gave the governor the data and metrics they had available at the time to make the decision to open the 24 counties that will move from red to yellow Friday, which will relax some restrictions imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf's administration on businesses and residents.

“We will be continuing to look at new data both our data as well as from Carnegie Mellon (University),” Levine said. “We're going to be working with local authorities in terms of our testing capability and we'll be presenting that information to the governor for his decision to consider other counties to go from red to yellow.”

In a phone conference with the media Tuesday, Wolf said his administration will continually evaluate when to reopen counties and regions, and he applauded the people of southwestern Pennsylvania for “doing a really good job.”

“I think we will be making an announcement soon,” Wolf said. “We're doing the best we can to keep people safe in the constraints of this deadly virus.”

Wolf said there is no timeline for releasing additional counties from his orders.

“There is no fixed schedule. That would be arbitrary,” Wolf said. “We're following the schedule dictated to us by the virus. We're doing the best we can.”

Wolf said he wanted to remind people that it was important to use a measured approach in reopening the counties as he did when they were closed through a stay-at-home order.

“If we act too quickly, we're going to be doing something that's dangerous to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Wolf said. “I'm trying to keep people safe.”

The following data about the coronavirus pandemic are compiled daily from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s website and regular releases from Butler Health System.Tuesday’s COVID-19 statistics:Butler CountyConfirmed cases: 184Negative tests: 2,524Deaths: 6PennsylvaniaNew cases: 865Total cases: 50,957New deaths: 554Total deaths: 3,012Negative tests: 199,925Butler Memorial HospitalInpatients: 8Suspected: 1Confirmed: 7ICU: 1Total tests: 2,901Outdoor tests: 2,034Positive tests: 213Clarion HospitalInpatients: 2Suspected: 0Confirmed: 2ICU: 0Total tests: 629Outdoor tests: 503Positive tests: 24Surrounding CountiesAllegheny: 1,375 confirmed cases, 17,636 negative test results, and 109 deathsArmstrong: 53 confirmed, 753 negative, and 3 deathsBeaver: 466 confirmed, 2,187 negative, and 73 deathsClarion: 23 confirmed, 518 negative, and 1 deathLawrence: 67 confirmed, 810 negative, and 7 deathsMercer: 67 confirmed, 817 negative, and 1 deathVenango: 7 confirmed and 269 negativeWestmoreland: 405 confirmed, 5,094 negative, and 27 deaths- The total cases includes confirmed and probable cases.- The total deaths and new deaths include only confirmed deaths, which is a person who tested positive for the virus before their death.