The Saskatchewan N-D-P say urgent action from the Sask. Party government is needed in schools and classrooms buckling under the pressure of COVID-19’s fourth wave in the province.

N-D-P leader Ryan Meili and Opposition Education critic Carla Beck called on the government to install self-isolation requirements for all children who are close contacts to positive novel coronavirus cases.

They also feel teachers and school staff should be included in mandatory vaccine requirements, as well as for rapid testing and contact tracing resources to be provided to schools and daycares.

The N-D-P say, under the province’s current health order, children are exempt from isolation requirements, despite a third of Saskatchewan schools having been hit by COVID-19 and that one-third of all new cases of the virus in the last week are unvaccinated children and youth in the province.