State data added 12 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death to Butler County in a Thursday report.

The report by the Pennsylvania Department of Health listed the county with a total of 735 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. The county's death toll also increased to 19.

One death was reported by Butler Health System Monday, but officials did not know if the patient was a permanent resident of the county.

In its report Wednesday, BHS did not report any new deaths, but Butler Memorial is treating three inpatients for COVID-19 symptoms, two of whom have tested positive for the virus. Clarion Hospital also has one inpatient suspected case of COVID-19.

Neither hospital is using the intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, another regional hospital advanced in the treatment of serious cases of the virus.Findings reported Wednesday through the “Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform-Community Acquired Pneumonia” (REMAP-CAP) trial showed corticosteroids improve the odds of a very sick COVID-19 patient surviving the illness.Clinician-scientists at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine led the international research team, which pooled data from 121 hospitals in eight countries.“This is, in many respects, the single clearest answer we've had so far on how to manage critically-ill COVID-19 patients. People on ventilators or oxygen and under intensive care should definitely be given corticosteroids,” said lead author Dr. Derek Angus, chief health care innovation officer at UPMC, in a news release Wednesday.Between March and June, the trial randomized 403 adult COVID-19 patients admitted to an intensive care unit to receive the steroid hydrocortisone or no steroids at all.The trial found a 93% probability that giving patients a seven-day intravenous course of hydrocortisone would result in better outcomes than not giving the steroid. The results were consistent across age, race and sex.“It is relatively rare in medicine that you find drugs where the evidence of their effectiveness in saving lives is so consistent,” Angus said.According to a UPMC news release, the World Health Organization is updating its COVID-19 treatment guidance as a result. Steroids currently are not recommended for critically ill patients because they can dampen the immune system and have serious side effects.The trial is the only U.S.-based trial to test corticosteroids — a widely accessible drug that lowers inflammation and modulates immune system activity — for treating critically ill COVID-19 patients.The trial was one of many that reinforced the results of the UK RECOVERY trial in June, which found the steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths by 29% in ventilated COVID-19 patients.“This gives physicians like me, who treat the sickest of the sick, hope,” said co-author Dr. Bryan McVerry, UPMC pulmonologist. “We are beginning to get a handle on the deadly side of this disease.”