As Butler County transitions into the yellow phase of the state's COVID-19 recovery plan, Butler Health System sees positive trends and looks to further reopen its services.

According to the state Department of Health's Wednesday report, Butler County saw no new coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, a report from Butler Health System showed a decrease in the number of COVID-19 inpatients from last week.

“We are pleased our COVID numbers are going in the right direction supporting reopening activities,” said BHS spokeswoman Jana Panther.

A BHS report Friday noted there were seven COVID-19 inpatients at Butler Memorial Hospital with five having confirmed cases of the virus. Two of the seven patients were being treated in the intensive care unit.

In Wednesday's report, the hospital had only two COVID-19 inpatients. Only one patient had a confirmed case of the virus, and neither were in the ICU.

The report comes on the same day the regional health care system's Reopening Steering Committee announced further changes in favor of restarting elective services due to the low number of COVID-19 cases.

BHS will reopen inpatient chemical dependency treatment Thursday. Also reopening will be the Sleep Lab, and more patients will be seen in person at doctor's offices.

The system will also revamp its surgical department by going from 50 percent to 75 percent use of its operation rooms beginning Monday. Surgeries will have some restrictions.

“Surgeons are responsible to assess risk and determine which patients should have procedures,” Panther said. “Nursing home patients will not have elective procedures.”

While these changes favor more access to the hospital, COVID-19 is still considered a threat to patients, and some restrictions will continue.

“Visitor restrictions remain in place,” Panther said.

Moving to yellow

As BHS opens, the state is moving cautiously toward the same goal in releasing residents from stay-at-home orders.

Butler County will move Friday from the red phase to the yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolf's reopening plan.

State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said the state remains focused on moving counties from red to yellow, and the administration does not yet have the criteria or timeline for when counties could move to green. However, she did confirm the administration will consider the green phase soon.

Levine also asked residents to keep in mind the incubation period for the virus when the governor makes his decision on moving counties from one phase to another. The incubation period for the coronavirus, on average, is about five days, but has been seen to incubate for as long as 14 days.

“It's only been about five days since any county went to yellow, so it's too soon for any county to go to green,” Levine said.

Comment controversy

Levine also fielded questions about whether Wolf went too far in his comments about counties rebelling against his orders and opening prematurely while being designated in the red phase.

“No. I, of course, support the governor and the governor's statements,” Levine said.

Wolf called legislators and county officials of rebelling counties “cowardly” and “selfish” in a news conference Monday.

Beaver County is among the counties planning to defy the governor's orders this week. It was the only southwestern county not listed by Wolf as moving to the yellow phase Friday.

Beaver County is home to a severe outbreak in a large nursing home.

“Come this Friday, we plan on opening because we've been getting hundreds of emails, text messages and phone calls that these business owners are on the brink of closing down,” Daniel Camp III, Republican chairman of the Beaver County commissioners, told a joint Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

On Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and Glenn Thompson, R-15th — both of whom represent Butler County — joined five congressional colleagues contesting Wolf's comments from Monday. The group took particular umbrage with the governor's threat to withhold discretionary portions of the CARES Act federal funding from counties rebelling against his orders.

“We remind the governor these funds were appropriated by Congress for all of Pennsylvania's counties, not just those who will bend to his will,” the representatives said in a joint statement.

The statement further argued people are not “surrendering to coronavirus,” calling them “brave” in trying to stand up to provide for their families.

“He needs a reality check and more sensitivity to the hardships that families across the commonwealth are experiencing as a result of his continued shutdown,” the contingent of representatives from Pennsylvania said. “Enough is enough.”