Five COVID-19 patients have died and more have needed beds at Butler Memorial Hospital over the past two days.

According to Butler Health System's report Friday, Butler Memorial reported three deaths Wednesday and two deaths Thursday.

Butler Memorial also reported having 31 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which represents an increase of two patients from its report Wednesday.

According to Friday's report by the Department of Health, the county had one more resident die from COVID-19. The data collected by the department of health can have lags of one to two days.

Also, the department tracks deaths and cases by county of residence, so if someone who calls a different county home dies at Butler Memorial, then their death does not get added to Butler County's totals.

Also Friday, the county added 33 new confirmed cases to its totals. The county has averaged about 29 new confirmed cases per day, which has fallen well below January's average of about 61 new cases per day.

During the county's ongoing bout with COVID-19, Butler Health System continues to schedule vaccine appointments when it can.

According to hospital officials, if there are no more dates available on its online scheduling system, then that means the doses they have in stock have all been scheduled.

Scheduling for both Butler Memorial and Clarion hospitals opened again this week, but as of Friday, Butler Memorial had no more available dates. Clarion Hospital still had some available.

“Appointments are limited by doses received from the Pennsylvania Department of Health,” Panther said.

Vaccine scheduling, when open, is available to county residents age 65 and older through its online scheduling system.

Any county resident who is unable to access the internet or is having difficulty scheduling their appointment should contact the Butler County Area Agency at 724-282-3008.

The following numbers on the coronavirus pandemic were compiled from regular news releases from the state Department of Health and Butler Health System.COVID-19 statistics from Friday are:<b>Butler County</b>Confirmed cases: 8451Probable cases: 4571Negative tests: 43687Deaths: 338<b>Butler Memorial Hospital</b>Inpatients: 31Suspected: 0Confirmed: 31ICU: 4Total tests: 37,928Outdoor tests: 15,870Positive tests: 2,567<b>Clarion Hospital</b>Inpatients: 6Suspected: 2Confirmed: 4ICU: 1Total tests: 11,513Outdoor tests: 9,740Positive tests: 1,842<b>Pennsylvania</b>New cases: 4,688Total cases: 861,674New deaths: 138Total deaths: 22,239Recovered: 84%<b>Surrounding Counties</b>Allegheny: 55,947 confirmed cases; 341,086 negative; and 1,576 deathsArmstrong: 3,679 confirmed cases; 14,001 negative; and 113 deathsBeaver: 9,553 confirmed cases; 42,686 negative; and 328 deathsClarion: 1,681 confirmed cases; 7,319 negative; and 76 deathsLawrence: 4,273 confirmed cases; 16,927 negative; and 174 deathsMercer: 6,117 confirmed cases; 25,348 negative; and 230 deathsVenango: 2,580 confirmed cases; 9,884 negative; and 77 deathsWestmoreland: 18,039 confirmed cases; 82,289 negative; and 626 deaths.