Eight more county residents have died from COVID-19, and 75 new cases in the county were reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The number of county residents who have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began in the spring rose to 6,791 Wednesday, and the number of deaths was 216 as of Tuesday.

Butler Memorial Hospital is treating 59 COVID patients, including 12 in the intensive care unit. The hospital also reported that one patient died Monday and a second one died Tuesday.

Statewide, the 9,474 additional cases reported Wednesday raises the total to 683,389, and the 368 new deaths reported as of Tuesday raises the total to 16,914.

The health department said the 5,684 people hospitalized with COVID-19 is near double the peak in the spring and, of that number, 1,148 patients are in intensive care. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older.

The trend in the 14-day average of number of hospitalized patients per day has increased by nearly 5,300 since the end of September. The statewide percent positivity for the week of Dec. 25 — Dec. 31 was 15%.

In nursing and personal care homes, 9,262 residents have died and 55,480 residents and 10,186 employees have tested positive. The total number of positive cases is 65,666 at 1,488 facilities in all 67 counties. About 19,940 of all cases in the state are among health care workers.

Hospitals in the state began receiving shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 14 and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine the week of Dec. 21. As of Tuesday, 159,216 doses of the vaccine have been administered. In the county, 2,345 vaccinations have been administered to health care workers and nursing home residents.