Butler County's eight new cases of COVID-19 makes 15 days straight of single digit additions.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health's regular updates, Butler County's last double-digit addition of COVID-19 came Aug. 13 with 12 cases.

With the addition of eight new confirmed cases Friday, the county's total now stands at 705, which represents the number of residents who have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. The county's COVID-19 death toll remains at 18.

While a number of timing factors impact the data listed in the reports, like the turnaround time for tests, a prolonged trend of low new case numbers could look favorable in weekly reports that the state government has based its pandemic-related decisions on in the past.

The Department of Health also updated its COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard on Friday.

From Aug. 21 to Thursday, Butler County saw a percent positivity of 2.1%. Comparatively, the statewide percent positivity rate was 3.2% over the same time period.

According to the update, the county saw five fewer new cases than the week before.