The provincial government has purchased a large order of protective face shields and face masks from a Saskatoon-based company, Benchmark Personal Protective Equipment, to provide to schools across the province.
Including 18,000 face shields and four million face masks, the personal protective equipment will be shipped later this week directly to all 27 school divisions and 26 independent schools in Saskatchewan for both staff and student use.
With the new order of PPE, a face shield now to be provided to every school-based staff member in the province.
“Our government is pleased to support Saskatchewan-based personal protective equipment suppliers while protecting students, school staff and families,” said Education Minister Dustin Duncan, in a press release. “We continue to work closely with the education sector to identify how we can best support their school-based needs.”
This is the third batch of PPE the government has provided to schools in the province, purchased using the $10 million allocated to the Ministry of Education for purchasing PPE.
It is also counted in addition to the 8.4 million disposable masks already purchased by the ministry and the 28,000 face shields previously provided by Ontario company The Canadian Shield earlier in the fall. Individual divisions and schools have also purchased their own equipment as well.
The province is also looking to purchase 210,000 non-medical cloth face masks, with a request for bids currently available on SaskTenders.
The request is open until Jan. 14, and the successful supplier would need to deliver the masks directly to school divisions by the end of January.
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