Fort McMurray is adding 18 more cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

The province announced on Saturday 1,879 new cases across Alberta – the highest daily count since measures were first introduced in mid-March.

This raises the provincial total to 66,730 with 18,806 currently active. There are also 563 Albertans in the hospital for the virus, 101 of which are in ICUs.

Locally, along with the new cases, there were also 18 additional recoveries which keeps the active total in the community at 214.

The rural areas added one more case which raises the total of active cases to 11.

In total, 722 individuals across the RMWB – 624 in Fort McMurray and 98 in the rural areas – have recovered.

They are among the 47,328 who’ve recovered across the province. This represents just under 71 per cent of reported cases.

There were also six new deaths from COVID-19 in Alberta over the past day – raising the total to 596.

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