The province is introducing more measures to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Premier Jason Kenney announced on Thursday they will temporarily be moving all junior and senior high school students in hard-hit regions back to virtual learning.

This is a step the Fort McMurray Catholic School District and Public School Division have already taken.

Also, all indoor fitness and sport activities in these areas will be restricted starting Friday and lasting a minimum of two weeks.

Regions and communities averaging at least 1,000 cases per 100,000 individuals will be put under a curfew if requested directly by the municipality.

At this time, the RMWB is not under a curfew.

Kenney adds those who are given a COVID-19 fine and refuse to pay won’t be able to renew your license and other registry services.

Daily Regional Update

The active total of COVID-19 cases in Fort McMurray is continuing to rise.

The province announced on Thursday 2,048 new cases in the province over the past 24 hours.

There are currently 21,385 active cases across Alberta, while there have been a total of 188,727 positive tests. There are also 632 Albertans in the hospital for the virus, 151 of which are in ICUs.

Locally, Fort McMurray added 104 new cases and 75 recoveries in the past 24 hours which puts the active total at 1,264.

The rural areas added two new cases, raising the total of active cases to 19.

Wood Buffalo National Park remains at zero active cases.

The region remains the worst in the province when it comes to spread of the virus.

The RMWB is averaging nearly 1,537 cases per 100,000 individuals.

The closest is Banff which is averaging roughly 420 fewer cases per 100,000 people.

In total, 2,867 individuals across the RMWB – 2,694 in Fort McMurray, 163 in the rural areas, and 10 in Wood Buffalo National Park – have recovered.

They are among the 165,267 who’ve recovered across the province. This represents over 87 per cent of reported cases.

There were also two new deaths from COVID-19 in Alberta over the past 24 hours – raising the total at 2,075.

To date, five individuals in Fort McMurray have died as a result of the virus.

-An earlier version claimed all students in hard hit areas would be moving back to virtual learning, however, it’s just junior and senior high school students