Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are compiling a COVID-19 archive.

Dr. Erika Dyck, a USask researcher says they want to go above and beyond public records and what the provincial archives is mandated to record.

She adds they assume public health policies that have been enacted and public health statements will be covered by the province, but what they won’t have, is more personal stories says Dyck.

“Oral testimonies from, for example nurses who have been living and working during this period or family members who haven’t been able to see their loved ones in nursing homes for example or long-term care facilities or kids who have spent the last two years in masks and haven’t seen the face of their teachers.”

Dyck says they want to capture anything that isn’t required to be recorded by any provincial jurisdiction and to capture what she calls the “social” history of COVID-19.

Dr. Dyck hopes the project will result in two things. One being a reference for future pandemic planning to help future researchers and the other is to help deal with the “grieving” process as we start to live life in the new phase of living with COVID.