Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Sunday, Jan. 2

The latest on isolation, school reopenings, restrictionsand more:

• Alberta is reducing its COVID-19 isolation period from 10 days to five for people who havereceived at least two doses of vaccine and are symptom-free by that time effective Jan. 3, Health Minister Jason Copping announced in a provincial update with Dr. Deena Hinshaw on Friday.
  • If symptoms continue past five days, fully vaccinated people must continue to isolate untilfeeling better.
  • If they're symptom free after five days, they must wear a mask around others at all times when they're outside their home.
  • The change does not apply to people who aren't fully vaccinated, who must continue to isolate for10 days or until their symptoms end, whichever is longer.
  • Copping said the change followed evidence that suggests fully immunized people have shorter infectious periods.
  • This change also follows the approach taken by Ontario and some other provinces, as well as the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, Copping said.
  • Exceptions will be provided for workplaces where disruption of service for 24 hours or more would be harmful to the public, and where there is no other way to continue the service except by bringing workers back before their isolation period has ended, Copping said.
  • In these circumstances, additional health public health measures will be required. For example, Copping said returning workers would not be allowed to remove their masks when in the same room as anyone else at any time.
• No new restrictions were announced Friday, but Hinshaw and Coppingurged everyone to cut their close contacts in half. Hinshaw said that people should assume that wherever they go and whatever they do, someone is infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant even if they're not showing symptoms.
• A day earlier, the province announced it was delaying the reopening of schools provincewide.Schools'winter break for K-Grade 12 students will be extendedto Jan. 10 provincewide, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced Thursday:
  • Due to the disruption to learning, January diploma exams will also be cancelled.
  • The delay will also be accompanied by the distribution of 8.6 million at-home rapid tests and medical grade masks.
  • Daycares will remain open.
• The Omicron variant had already prompted several post-secondary institutions across the province toreturn to online learningfor the first few weeks of the winter term.

WATCH: How to perform the rapid antigen test:

How to use a take home COVID-19 test kit

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With the province releasing home rapid COVID-19 test kits, Edmonton pharmacist Shivali Sharma shows CBCs Pippa Reed how to use one properly.

• Kenney said Tuesday that Alberta doesn't plan to followQuebec's lead in allowing some health-care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 or come in close contact with a confirmed case to remain on the job to protect hospital capacity. However, he didn't entirely rule it out.
  • Earlier in the month, inanticipation of anticipated demand from soaringOmicron variant cases, the province directed Alberta Health Services to allowany unimmunized physicians and staff who wantto return to work to do so, with participation in a temporary testing program.
• Another one million rapid tests bought by Alberta have arrived and another three million will arrive next week, Kenney said Tuesday. The province bought its own 10 million rapid tests, he said.
• There are active outbreaks at seven acute care sites across the province, AHS reported Thursday.
• Correctional Service Canadasaid Thursday that13 inmates and 41 employees at Drumheller Institution have tested positive for COVID-19.

WATCH |What is the Omicron variant?Infectious disease expert Craig Jenne simplifies what the variant is:

What is the Omicron variant?

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Infectious disease expert Craig Jenne simplifies what the variant is, and what it means for the latest round in our battle against COVID.

• New public health restrictions in Albertatookeffect on Dec. 24. They include:
  • Venues in the Restrictions Exemption Programthat seatmore than 1,000 people are to be at 50 per cent capacity.For venues with capacity of 500 to 1,000 occupants, 500 people is the limit. No food or drink can be consumed in these venues.
  • Restaurants, pubs and bars areto have a maximum table capacity of 10 people. Mingling between tables andinteractive activities like dancing or billiardsare not permitted.
  • They must stop serving liquor at 11 p.m. andclose at 12:30 a.m.
  • The tightened restrictions came after Kenneyloosenedprivatesocial gathering restrictions on Dec. 15,scrapping the rule that only people fromtwo households can get together indoors. He said social gatherings couldconsist of people from any household, but shouldn't exceed10 people (not counting those under age 18).He also dropped therequirement that everyoneat indoor social gatherings be fully vaccinated.
  • Alberta has had arestrictions exemption program,a voluntary vaccine passport system, in place as ofSept. 20 after suffering through adisastrous fourth wave of COVID-19.A full list of restrictions and exemptions is available on the government's website.

The latest COVID-19 numbers:

• Alberta Health Services released updated ICU numbers Friday. There are 251 general adult ICU beds open in Alberta, including 78 additional spaces above thebaseline of 173.
• There are currently 174 patients in ICU.
• ProvincialICU capacity (including additional surge beds) is at 69 per cent. Without the additional surge spaces, provincial ICU capacity would be at 101 per cent.
• No new provincial numbers were announced during a live update Friday with Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, and Health Minister Jason Copping.
• The province will resume regular reporting, including a day-by-day breakdown of cases, on Jan. 4.
• Hinshaw said there were about 21,000active COVID-19 casesconfirmed by PCR testingin the province as of Friday, but stressed that the actual case count was no doubt much higher since, as of Dec. 23, most Albertans are being urged to skipPCR tests and insteaduse at-home rapid antigen testing or assume they have COVID if they're symptomatic.
• Hinshaw said Friday that although it seems that a smaller percentage of Omicron cases are requiring acute care, it can beexpected that a greater number of people infected will soon translate into a greater number of people in hospital.
• Albertareported a record high of daily new cases for the second day in a row on Thursday, with an estimated 4,000:
  • This comes one day after the province hit its previousrecord high with2,775 new cases, driven by a surged tied to the more highly infectious Omicron variant.
  • The positivity rate in Alberta is estimated to be30 per cent.
  • There are 371 people in hospital with 48 in ICU.

• Daily updates to the government'spandemic tracking dashboard haveslowed over the holidays(so the charts in this story will have gaps in data throughout the week).
• Experts and the government have warned that many more cases of COVID-19 will be going unreported since the province changed its testing protocol on Dec. 23 to discourage most people from seeking the free PCR tests through Alberta Health Services to confirm infection:
  • As of that day, thegovernment directedAlbertans toavoid getting a PCR test ifpossibleto preserve limited lab capacity for tracking outbreaks in high-risk settings such as continuing care, in response to the anticipated surge of cases tied to the more highly infectious Omicron variant.
  • Instead, it nowrecommends home rapid antigen testing kits forpeople withsymptoms,except for some priority groups.
  • People who geta positive rapid test kit result are nowtold to consider it to be a COVID-19 confirmation; people who are feeling symptomatic are also told the same. They're being told toisolate and notify their close contacts.
  • Many doctors are urging people usingrapid antigen testing kitstoswab their throatsas well as their noses to improve their chances of detecting the virus early.

Watch | Alberta's top doctor says Omicron cases spreading too fast to ID with testing:

Omicron cases just the tip of the iceberg, Dr. Hinshaw says

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Duration 1:16

The latest on vaccines:

• On Friday, Hinshaw urged Albertans to book their third dose of vaccine, regardless of which mRNA is available to them, on Friday after reports that some people are waiting for Pfizer to be available.
• As of Dec. 29, Alberta placed last of all provinces and territories in terms of the percentage of eligible people (ages five and up) who had received the COVID-19 vaccine,according to CBC's vaccine tracker.
  • 72.3per cent of the province's total population or 76.8per cent of eligible Albertans(ages five years and older) have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
  • 78.7per centof the province's total population, and 83.5per cent of those ages five and older, have received at least one dose.

• Starting Dec. 21, the Alberta government announced that anyone aged 18 and older who received their second COVID-19 vaccine at least five months agocouldnow book a third dose.

See which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is thelatest detailed regional breakdownof active cases, as reported by the province onDec. 29:

• Calgary zone: 9,293.
• Edmonton zone: 6,216.
• Central zone:687.
• North zone:597.
• South zone:471.
• Unknown:132.

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:

The latest updates on COVID-19 in Alberta in charts and graphs: