Butler County received a reprieve in new COVID-19 deaths, but added new cases in the triple digits, according Thursday's state data.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health's Thursday report showed Butler County with 3,458 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase of 107 from Wednesday's report.

The death toll since the beginning of the pandemic remained at 82 Thursday, which broke a five-day span that included the deaths of 12 residents.

More than two-thirds of the county's total deaths, 54, have come since the beginning of November.

The county has also seen its largest uptick in confirmed cases during that period of time. Since the beginning of November, the county has added 1,935 confirmed cases, an average of about 58 per day.

Thursday's addition of 107 cases is the second time the county has reached triple digits after setting a record of 115 confirmed cases added in one day on Nov. 29.

The state also set its own record Thursday with 11,406 new confirmed cases. The state also saw 187 deaths in Thursday's data.

“We are certainly not through this yet, and we cannot return to life as normal right now,” said state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine in a news conference Thursday.

Levine said it is important for Pennsylvanians to continue to practice mitigation tactics, including mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. She said this especially becomes important to preserve the health care system, for which the tactics were originally designed, to keep it from being overwhelmed.

“We all have a role to play in what is happening in hospitals right now,” Levine said.

Levine announced that none of the six regional health care system coalitions have met all three criteria to shut down their elective services, but there are some that have met one criteria.

“The Southwest PA Region and the Keystone Region (Southcentral) coalitions have met the staffing trigger,” Levine said.

Meeting the criteria means 1/3 or more of the hospitals in that region anticipate a staffing shortage in the next week.

Butler Health System took its own measures Wednesday in shifting to Phase 1 of its surge plan. For Butler Memorial Hospital, the plan put a stop to non-emergency procedures and began the repurposing of its post-anesthesia care unit to a critical care unit, which will add 15 ICU beds.

BHS cited both Butler Memorial and Clarion Hospital ICUs being at capacity as part of the reason for the move.

Levine said some experts are predicting a reaching of ICU capacity statewide in the coming weeks. On Thursday, the state reported 4,982 people hospitalized statewide with 1,048 of those in intensive care units.

“The people who are making our health systems work are relying on you to do the right thing,” Levine said.