After a lull Monday, Butler County added six deaths, its highest daily addition to date, according to state data.

According to Tuesday's report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the six new deaths continue a seven-day streak of reported deaths. The county's COVID-19 death toll now stands at 63.

The county also added 90 new confirmed cases. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,775 county residents have tested positive for the virus.

The county averaged 56 new confirmed cases per day over the past week, which is slightly above the average for the month of November, which is 52 new cases daily. The county averaged about 16 new cases daily in October.

Michael Huff, director of testing and contact tracing for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, gave a report Tuesday in a virtual news conference. According to his data, 111,838 PCR tests and 13,634 antigen tests were performed over the past two days.

To date, roughly 5.5 million COVID-19 tests have been performed, Huff said, accounting for about 43% of the state's population.

A PCR test — a polymerase chain reaction — searches the sample for genetic material to indicate if the virus is active in the patient, while an antigen test searches for the proteins of the virus. The PCR test is considered more accurate and is more widely used for confirming a diagnosis, while the antigen tests are used popularly for screening purposes.

However, contact tracing problems have continued, according to Huff.

Huff said in the past seven days, 34,719 cases were reported. Of those cases, only 8,332 people were successfully reached by contact tracers. He said also 96 of those people refused to quarantine.

“Why? Because people don't want to answer the phone,” he said. “It is because people don't realize how important it is to give the information we need to make certain we can control the disease.”

Huff along with state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine and Gov. Tom Wolf have repeated the same message for weeks: “Answer the call.”

Huff said his staff is currently prioritizing cases in which the test result was positive within the past six days. He said they are also prioritizing close contacts in households and those living in congregate living settings.

Huff said, generally, if contact tracers are unable to reach a person who tested positive, after 14 days the tracing effort is scrapped because by that time the infected person has likely stopped spreading the virus. In other words, it's too late.

“The challenge here is for those 14 days, without knowing that case exists, the potential is that that case will spread into other cases,” Huff said.

While contact tracing efforts are still struggling, Huff continued to call for more Pennsylvanians to download the COVID Alert PA phone application. The app will alert users anonymously if they've come into close contact with someone who has either tested positive for COVID-19 or someone who is considered a close contact of someone who tested positive. The app also has resources, information and phone numbers available to the users for more information and guidance on COVID-19. To date, 560,000 residents have downloaded the app, which has seen an average daily check-in rate of roughly 452,000. “I encourage you to download the app and use it daily,” Huff said. “It's extra caution, and it's very important that we remain vigilant at this time.”