According to state reporting Monday, the county's COVID-19 death toll reached 46, and state and local health officials are reporting further increases in hospitalizations.

The county's total number of deaths Monday was an increase of five over three days with two reported Saturday, one on Sunday and two on Monday, according to respective reports from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

During that same time frame, the county added a three-day total of 177 confirmed cases with 55 reported Saturday, 59 on Sunday and 63 on Monday.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,227 county residents have tested positive.

“We need all Pennsylvanians to take a stand and answer the call to protect one another,” said Gov. Tom Wolf in a news release Monday.

The Department of Health's data has been noted to have a lag in reporting, usually between one or two days, which has been confirmed in the past by state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.

According to Monday's report from Butler Health System, one patient from Butler Memorial Hospital died Saturday. Deaths are attributed to the deceased's county of permanent residence, even if the person dies in another county or state.

Both Butler Memorial and the state continued to show upticks in hospitalizations. Butler Memorial reported 32 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, 31 of whom have tested positive. The hospital also reported that five of the COVID-19 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit.

According to a Monday news release from the Department of Health, there are 2,440 people hospitalized statewide with 531 patients being treated in intensive care.

“As we are experiencing a large surge in cases across the state, the public health infrastructure we continue to build is prioritizing case investigations in order to prevent outbreaks from occurring,” said Levine in a separate news release.

The department issued another plea for people to answer calls from contact tracers.

“If you were a close contact of someone, please answer the call,” she said. “By answering the call, you are helping our health professionals mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities to further protect our neighbors and loved ones.”

Through contact tracing, the state hopes to curb community spread of the virus, which refers to positive cases that cannot be traced to their source of origin.

“The significant increase in cases and percent positivity across much of the state is a cause for concern,” said Wolf in a news release Monday.

From Nov. 6 through Thursday, the state saw an incidence rate of 204.7, which calculates the number of cases per 100,000 residents, according to the state's COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring dashboard.

The dashboard also showed a state total of 26,215 positive new cases during that week, an increase of 9,569 from the week before. The state's PCR positivity rate also increased to 9.6%, up from 6.8%.

“Across the state, we are seeing community spread happening in all 67 counties, including Butler,” said Maggi Mumma, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health.

The dashboard's numbers for Butler County showed similar upticks. The county's incidence rate rose to 188.9 from 113.9, and its PCR positivity rate rose to 10.1% from 8.1%.

Health experts both state and local have said the increases in both incidence rate and percent positivity show that the spike in COVID-19 cases is not attributable to increased testing capacity that may be finding more cases than before.

Also Monday, the state reported sanctions in three more nursing care facilities, which included total civil penalties of $26,750. None of the facilities were in Butler County.

The department has maintained a watch over long-term care facilities to ensure proper protocols are being undertaken during the pandemic. Thus far, no county facilities have been penalized during the pandemic.

“If you see something at a nursing home that doesn't seem right, we encourage you to speak up,” Levine said.

Individuals with complaints about a nursing home can file that complaint with the department in several ways. Complaints can be made anonymously by calling 1-800-254-5164, filling out the online complaint form, emailing c-ncomplai@pa.gov or sending the complaint in the mail to the department.