Butler County saw five new cases of COVID-19 added Thursday — bringing the county's total to 240. The county's death toll remained at 12.

At 12:01 a.m. Friday, Butler County moved into the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolf's plans to reopen. All counties in the southwest region are in the green phase.

According to the state Department of Health, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine will no longer conduct daily briefings on COVID-19. Briefings will instead be conducted Mondays and Fridays and only as needed on weekdays.

As more counties move into the yellow and green phases of the state's plan to reopen, Gov. Tom Wolf also announced this week that an emergency order that's affected Pennsylvanians statewide during the coronavirus pandemic would expire late Thursday night. He also renewed a statewide disaster declaration for another three months.

At 11:59 p.m. Thursday, just before Butler County would move to the green phase of reopening, the governor's statewide stay-at-home order expired.

The move signaled an end to the most disruptive of the state's mitigation efforts as the entire state has now moved into some stage of reopening.

“As phased reopening continues and all 67 counties are either in the yellow or green phase by Friday, we will no longer have a stay-at-home order in effect,” Wolf said. “I remind Pennsylvanians that yellow means caution and even in the green phase everyone needs to take precautions to keep themselves and their communities healthy.”

The governor also extended his March 6 COVID-19 disaster emergency proclamation, which was set to expire Thursday as well, for another 90 days. That proclamation gives the governor expanded powers — which some in the state have alleged he abused — during the pandemic response. So far to date, nearly 74,000 Pennsylvanians have been infected with the virus, leading to more than 5,800 death across the state.

“Pennsylvanians have done a tremendous job flattening the curve and case numbers continue to decrease,” Wolf said. “Renewing the disaster declaration helps state agencies with resources and supports as we continue mitigation and recovery.”

The following numbers on the coronavirus pandemic were compiled from the regular news releases from the state Department of Health.Thursday’s COVID-19 statistics:Butler CountyConfirmed cases: 240Negative tests: 4,008Deaths: 12PennsylvaniaNew cases: 537Total cases: 73,942New deaths: 75Total deaths: 5,817Negative tests: 416,942Recovered: 69 percentSurrounding CountiesAllegheny: 1,965 confirmed cases; 33,230 negative; and 166 deathsArmstrong: 64 confirmed; 1,382 negative; and 5 deathsBeaver: 599 confirmed; 4,071 negative; and 74 deathsClarion: 27 confirmed; 713 negative; and 2 deathsLawrence: 82 confirmed; 1,514 negative; and 8 deathsMercer: 110 confirmed; 1,855 negative; and 5 deathsVenango: 10 confirmed and 622 negativeWestmoreland: 455 confirmed; 10,642 negative; and 38 deaths