The provincial government has purchased four million masks and 30,000 face shields from two Saskatoon-based companies.

Innovation Safety Supply is producing the masks and sending them directly to school divisions, while the face shields are being produced by Benchmark Personal Protective Equipment.

The province says school divisions will receive the additional supplies sometime this month, possibly this week. The additional supplies will ensure staff and students have access to PPE for the rest of the school year.

The supplies are being purchased by using the $10 million allocated to the Ministry of Education from the provincial COVID-19 contingency fund.