Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Tuesday, May 25

The latest on restrictions:

• Premier Jason Kenney, alongside Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer will provide an update on the province's strategy for easing COVID-19 restrictions at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday. 
• Most of Alberta's students returned to in-person learning today. The exception was kindergarten to Grade 12 students in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, whose students will continue to learn from home until at least May 31.
• Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said in a news release last week that she's confident all students will finish the remainder of the school year in the classroom.
• Alberta has announced new COVID-19 quarantine rules: Fully vaccinated Albertans no longer have to quarantine if they are exposed to COVID-19 and are not showing symptoms.
• And people who have had one shot can have their isolation time reduced.

• Declining COVID-19 numbers across the province are encouraging, but some Alberta doctors caution against easing public health restrictions too soon. Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta, said declining case numbers show the public-health restrictions currently in effect are working. But that relief hasn't yet hit the province's intensive care units. And Edmonton emergency room physician Dr. Shazma Mithani  worries aggressive steps to reopening could derail recent progress.
• The government introduced a bundle of tougher public-health restrictions again on May 4, to slow the spread of COVID-19 — measures Premier Jason Kenney said were needed to keep the health-care system from being overwhelmed.
• The new public health measures apply to all parts of Alberta except those with fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 people.
• The full list of current restrictions is available on the province's website.

The latest on vaccines:

• 2,552,317 vaccine doses have been administered in Alberta, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford, as of May 24.
• 385 adverse events following immunization have been reported. The most common are allergic reactions, swelling of glands, and diarrhea/vomiting. Together these make up the majority of the adverse events reported.
• 49.2 per cent of Alberta's population has now received at least one dose of vaccine.
• 354,462 Albertans are fully immunized (two doses) — 7.9 per cent of the population.
• Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, is asking people to cancel their appointments if they can't make them, as over the last three days the no-show rate for AHS vaccination appointments was greater than four per cent, when one to three per cent is the norm.
• Hinshaw says people who got their first dose of vaccine outside of the province can get a second dose in Alberta with proof of vaccination, which will be entered into their health records.

(Note the latest daily count of new cases in the above chart will usually vary slightly from the net new cases Alberta Health announces each day. For more on why, click here.)

The latest COVID-19 numbers:

• Alberta reported 387 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and nine more deaths. 
• There were 12,078 active cases.
• The rate of active cases was 308 per 100,000 people in Alberta.
• The daily test positivity rate was 9.9 per cent.
• There were 565 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 158 in intensive care. 
• There have now been 2,192 COVID deaths. 
• 210,764 Albertans are considered to have recovered from COVID-19.
• The latest R-value reported for the province was 0.67, meaning the virus is spreading to less than one person for each confirmed case.
• There are 621 schools (or 26 per cent of schools in Alberta) on alert or with outbreaks, with a total of 5,132 cases. In-school transmission is believed to have occurred in 862 schools. 
• Three of Calgary's four adult hospitals are once again dealing with a number of COVID-19 outbreaks. The outbreaks are driven by the variant first discovered in the U.K. Rockyview General Hospital has three impacted units including four patients and one healthcare worker. An outbreak at Peter Lougheed Centre involves one patient. And Foothills Medical Centre has two units on outbreak including four patients.
• Shoppers Drug Mart says it is now offering rapid antigen COVID-19 tests for asymptomatic people at all its pharmacies in Ontario and Alberta. The tests have to be purchased.

See which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is the detailed regional breakdown of active cases as reported by the province on Tuesday.

• Calgary zone: 5,133.
• Edmonton zone: 3,088.
• Central zone: 1,289.
• South zone: 678.
• North zone: 1,877.
• Unknown: 13.

You can see active cases by local health area on the following interactive map. Scroll, zoom and click on the map for more information:

Find out which neighbourhoods or communities have the most cases, how hard people of different ages have been hit, the ages of people in hospital, how Alberta compares to other provinces and more in: Here are the latest COVID-19 statistics for Alberta — and what they mean.

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:

How Alberta compares to other provinces and territories: