4 million additional masks and 30,000 face shields for Saskatchewan schools

The Government of Saskatchewan is purchasing an additional four million medical grade disposable masks and 30,000 face shields from two Saskatoon companies. This is the fourth order of PPE supplies the province has provided directly to schools.

"Our government is committed to providing teachers, students and school staff continued access to personal protective equipment from locally based companies," Education Minister Dustin Duncan said. “We will continue working with our school communities to ensure they have the supplies needed to keep
students, staff and families safe."

School divisions will receive these additional supplies by mid-march. The medical grade disposable masks will be shipped directly to school divisions by Innovation Safety Supply. This additional order will support school divisions in ensuring all students and staff have daily access to masks for the remainder of the school year.

This new mask order is in addition to the 12.4 million disposable and 210,000 re-usable masks that have already been provided to school divisions and independent schools this school year.

The face shields, from Saskatoon-based company Benchmark Personal Protective Equipment, will continue to ensure that all classroom based staff have access to a face shield. This new order of face shields is in addition to the more than 46,000 that have already been provided to school divisions and independent
schools.

These supplies are being purchased using the $10 million allocated to the Ministry of Education by the provincial COVID-19 contingency fund for the purchase of PPE for schools.