Starting next week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will close drive-through testing at the Walmart in Cranberry Township.

In a news release Friday, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced the closure of the remaining nine Walmart drive-through and parking lot COVID-19 testing sites across the state, which includes the Cranberry Township location at 20245 Route 19. Other testing sites are available.

“When we established our testing strategy, we wanted testing to be accessible, available and adaptable,” said Levine in the release. “I'm pleased to say that we have met that challenge in 13 communities thanks to Quest Diagnostics and Walmart.”

Levine praised Quest for its services and continued collaboration with the department, but she acknowledged the Walmart locations were seeing declines in numbers. On average, fewer than 10 people per day were visiting the sites.

“We are committed to ensuring that testing is available to everyone close to home and will have testing options available in the counties where these sites were located,” Levine said.

Meanwhile, other commercial pharmacies have added drive-through testing capabilities throughout the county. The most recent to join these ranks was the CVS in Mars, which began its COVID-19 testing Wednesday.

“If symptomatic and asymptomatic Pennsylvanians in the impacted communities need testing after Sept. 25, they can visit entities such as Rite Aid, CVS, Patient First, Walgreens and others for testing,” Levine said.

According to Friday's updated data from the Department of Health, Butler County added 17 confirmed cases of the virus over a two-day period with eight on Thursday and nine on Friday.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 886 county residents have tested positive for the virus. The county's death toll remained at 22.

Butler Health System's inpatient numbers at Butler Memorial Hospital have decreased by three since its last update Wednesday.

On Friday, BHS reported five hospitalized patients who all have confirmed cases of the virus. Currently, those patients are not being treated in the intensive care unit.