Butler Health System becomes almost fully operational as Butler County adds two cases to its COVID-19 total, which now stands at 222,

“BHS is essentially 100 percent open for business, with appropriate safety measures in place,” said BHS spokeswoman Jana Panther.

The BHS Steering Committee met Tuesday to determine the extent to further reopen.

“Safety has guided us,” said Ken DeFurio, president and CEO of BHS. “We are just absolutely focused on staff safety and patient safety.”

Effective immediately, outpatient patient groups may meet with safe distancing, masking, hand-washing and screening requirements. The waiting rooms for physician offices will also be open under proper distancing protocols.

Starting Monday, surgery will be running at 100 percent capacity with pre-procedure testing requirements staying the same.

DeFurio said the decision to reopen almost entirely was due to a low number of COVID-19 patients being seen. He said despite numbers being low now, the system is reopening while being prepared in both equipment and protocol for a resurgence of the virus in the area.

“We're very pleased that the pandemic was not as bad as early projections,” DeFurio said. “The good news is the amount of disease is very low. It does not appear, based on the numbers we are checking daily, that there is a significant amount of community spread occurring.”

DeFurio said the only restriction that remains is that of the visitation policy. Currently visitation is not allowed with exceptions of instances of child birthing and the need for a medical proxy. A Visitation Subcommittee has formed off the Steering Committee to determine the best way to change visitation policy in the future.

DeFurio said removing the visitation restrictions will likely come when Gov. Tom Wolf moves Butler County into the green phase of reopening.

“Even then, visitation will be more restrictive than in the past,” he said.

DeFurio said by resuming all of its services, it can start to recover from the financial hardships suffered during the governor's stay-at-home orders.

“The pandemic has been very hard financially on this health system as it has on all systems across the United States,” DeFurio said. “Like all businesses, we need to get back to normal as quickly as possible.”

Most importantly, DeFurio said patients should not fear the hospital. He said any patient who has safety concerns about the hospital should contact their physician for more information.

“Any patients with questions about safety should talk to their physician,” DeFurio said. “We do not want patients to forgo care out of fear.”

As BHS further reopens, Butler County's COVID-19 numbers continue to be important to people eyeing the reopening of the rest of businesses in the county.

In a call with media Wednesday, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine reiterated one parameter that will need to be met by yellow counties to move to green. She said a county will have to show a continued decline in new cases over at least a two-week period.

“That's the high end of the incubation period of the virus itself,” Levine said. “So that's the minimum time period.”

Butler County was moved to the yellow phase May 15.

From May 1 to May 15, Butler County saw 22 new cases; since then there has been an increase of 20 new cases. The number of new cases Thursday and Friday will also factor into the state's decision about whether the county moves from yellow to green.

However, Levine has also said the department and Wolf will base their decision to move counties from yellow to green phases based on multiple models, projections and metrics.

Wolf is expected to announce further counties moving from one phase to another on Friday.

The following numbers on the coronavirus pandemic were compiled from the regular news releases from Butler Health System. The state Department of Health figures were not released Wednesday.Wednesday’s COVID-19 statistics:Butler CountyConfirmed cases: 222Negative tests: 3,541Deaths: 12Butler Memorial HospitalInpatients: 7Suspected: 5Confirmed: 2ICU: 1Total tests: 4,641Outdoor tests: 2,556Positive tests: 238Clarion HospitalInpatients: 2Suspected: 2Confirmed: 0ICU: 0Total tests: 949Outdoor tests: 684Positive tests: 32PennsylvaniaNew cases: 780Total cases: 69,417New deaths: 113Total deaths: 5,265Negative tests: 349,990Recovered: 62 percentSurrounding CountiesAllegheny: 1,828 confirmed cases; 28,168 negative; and 160 deathsArmstrong: 61 confirmed; 1,118 negative; and 4 deathsBeaver: 570 confirmed; 3,450 negative; and 72 deathsClarion: 25 confirmed; 663 negative; and 2 deathsLawrence: 74 confirmed; 1,208 negative; and 8 deathsMercer: 106 confirmed; 1,478 negative; and 4 deathsVenango: 8 confirmed and 484 negativeWestmoreland: 442 confirmed; 8,718 negative; and 38 deaths