Butler County saw a weekend spike of 130 new confirmed cases, but President Donald Trump's Saturday rally is likely not a factor — yet.

According to multiple daily reports by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Butler County added 22 new confirmed cases Saturday, 42 on Sunday and 66 on Monday. The county's death toll remained at 28.

Despite the large increases, it is unlikely those attending Saturday's visit by President Donald Trump have affected these statistical figures because in routine testing a PCR test requires at least one to two days to process results.

Per earlier reports by Butler Health System, hospitalized patients may see faster results, but those tests are reserved for special intents due to a lack of reagents at its local lab.

In an email response Monday, Maggi Mumma, deputy press secretary for the Department of Health, said while contact tracing is extremely useful for helping people quarantine, it relies heavily on self-reporting, which makes tracking cases coming from an individual event more difficult.

“There is not current evidence from our regular case investigation and contact tracing efforts that indicates outbreaks from these events, but we will continue to monitor,” Mumma said.

Mumma said it is important for people to respond to contact tracers when called upon. She said as part of a case investigation, a person is asked about their whereabouts, whether it be at businesses or public gatherings and events.

“We have told Pennsylvanians who attended events to contact their health care provider if they have questions about their health and remind them that testing is available,” she said. “We also have encouraged them to download the COVID Alert PA exposure notification application.”

State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine echoed these sentiments as she conducted a news conference Monday updating the public on the latest statewide data.

Positivity rate up

Levine reported a statewide percent positivity of a little over 6%. She said about 40 out of 67 counties have a percent positivity rate over 5%, which is 10 more counties than last week.

According to the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, Butler County's 6% percent positivity rate was from a one-week span between Oct. 23 and Thursday. One week before that, the county was at a 3.4% positivity rate.

“I cannot stress how critical this information this is for us, and how important it is for people to participate fully in the case investigation and contact tracing process,” Levine said.

The county's incidence rate also rose from 58.4 the week before to the most recent week's report of 88.4. The incidence rate represents the county's number of cases per 100,000 residents.

The number of new confirmed cases has also been on the rise. According to a separate reporting system, also by the Department of Health, the county has had 1,589 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the two weeks before this weekend's spike, the county was averaging about 18 new confirmed cases per day, but the county is not alone in the upward trend.

“Really, COVID-19 is increasing in all regions of Pa., and this is following the same pattern we're saying in every state across the country,” Levine said.

Controlling COVID-19

Levine spoke positively about other data. She said hospitalization rates, ventilator use and deaths have all increased, but pale in comparison to data collected in the spring, which also had many fewer tests being done per day.

“We are much better shape than we were in the spring,” she said.

But Levine warned that vigilance must be maintained. She said social distancing and other mitigation techniques as well as new treatments have played a factor in keeping people safe.

She said a vaccine will take that one step further, but there has been no indication as to when that vaccine will be complete, verified and available.

“If we all work together, we can control COVID-19. If people don't work together, then it's going to increase,” Levine said.