Butler Memorial Hospital's COVID-19 struggles continue into the holiday season.

According to the latest report from Butler Health System, eight inpatients died at Butler Memorial since Friday.

Despite the deaths, Butler Memorial's inpatient levels remained high with 50 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 48 of whom have confirmed cases of the virus. Eleven of Butler Memorial's inpatients are being treated in the intensive care unit.

Butler Memorial has seen plateaued numbers of inpatient levels in the high-40s and low-50s while Clarion Hospital has seen its inpatient levels decreasing since it peaked in the low 20s early last week.

Clarion Hospital reported the death of one COVID-19 inpatient on Friday. It reported current hospitalization of 15 COVID-19 patients with three of them being treated in the intensive care unit. The hospitalization rate has been an area of concern not only at BHS, but across the state and country as the fall resurgence has continued through the winter holiday season.

In a news conference Monday, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said if people continue mitigation practices, the stricter orders in place through Jan. 4 may loosen, but it depends on the data being monitored by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. “If people travel, if they have large and small gatherings, then we'll be more challenged, so we'll see how things go,” Levine said.

On Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported a state-wide inpatient level of 6,074 patients with 1,230 of them being treated in intensive care units.

While still over 6,000, the number of reported inpatients is a decrease of 73 from Friday's report, but Monday's report also came with the reported death of 147 state residents. Monday's report included a combined data set for Sunday and Monday.

“Right now we are certainly seeing a plateau, maybe even a slight decrease in our numbers,” Levine said. “It's always lower Sunday and Monday. We'll see how it progresses throughout the week.”

One Butler County resident was part of Monday's death toll addition as the Department of Health also attributed 88 new confirmed cases to the county.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 5,399 county residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and 147 residents have died because of the virus.

According to the COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, the county saw fewer cases between Dec. 11 and Thursday than the week before. The county also saw a slight decrease in its percent positivity rate which is now 14.4%.

The average daily hospitalization rate increased by about two to 51.7. Ventilator use and emergency room visits saw an incremental increase.

Recommendations by the department of health and Gov. Tom Wolf are for people to not travel during the Christmas and New Year holidays, spending it with immediate family only. Guidance also suggests wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.