REGINA -- The Opposition NDP is calling on the provincial government to immediately deploy rapid test kits in Saskatchewan schools, citing the rise in COVID-19 variant cases.

In February, the provincial government announced it would be expanding rapid test use, including in schools, but the NDP says none have been used in schools to date.

"There’s an urgency to this call today," Carla Beck, NDP Education Critic, said. "We really would like to see that support and that testing get out to schools as soon as possible so that we can avoid people getting sick with this variant."

Currently 85 per cent of variant cases in the province are in Regina and the city’s two school divisions have been told by public health officials to treat every positive case as a variant case.

The NDP would also like to see public health support for contact tracing in schools in order to more quickly identify close contacts, get them tested and have them self-isolate.

"We know that school divisions have been tasked with a lot of extra work around contact tracing over the last several months and what I’ve heard is that they do want rapid testing, but they need support from the Government," Beck said.

Schools in Saskatoon, Yorkton and Melville have moved to online learning due to variant cases being detected in their facilities.

Beck said using rapid test kits in schools is the best option to keeping schools open.

"I understand that people want to keep schools open, I think that there is a benefit to doing so, let’s do everything we can in order to slow transmission, keep people safe so we can all enjoy a summer in this province," she said.

During Thursday’s COVID-19 media conference, Health Minister Paul Merriman said the province continues to work on getting the rapid test kits deployed to schools.

"We’ve been working with our partners in education through the ministry and the [Saskatchewan School Boards Assocaition] to be able to make sure they have all the tools needed," Merriman said.

Merriman noted right now the school divisions need to request the kits and have people in place to administer the tests to ensure false positives or negatives aren’t occurring.

The province hasn’t confirmed if any test kits have been used in schools to date.