(CNN) -- The CEO and President of South Dakota-based Sanford Health says he will not be wearing a mask because he has already had Covid-19. Hospital staff are appalled. In an email sent Wednesday, which CNN obtained from a nurse at a Sanford Health hospital, CEO and President Kelby Krabbenhoft addressed the health system's 50,000 employees, explaining his decision.
Sanford Health's CEO says South Dakota doesn't need a mask-mandate, and the worst of the pandemic is days away from being in the rear-view mirror. Kelby Krabbenhoft told the Argus Leader in an interview that his healthcare system is positioned well to handle the amount of COVID-19 patients coming through the door.
The World Health Organization has recommended against using one of the only drugs approved to treat Covid-19 around the world, saying it has found no evidence to suggest that Gilead's remdesivir helps hospitalized patients recover or improves their outcomes.
More than 250,000 people have died in the United States, a number that grew by another 1,962 on Thursday. The Covid Tracking Project reported that more than 80,000 people were in the hospital, the highest number since the pandemic began.
Maryland hospitals are battening down the hatches and looking everywhere they can for the extra staff needed to respond to the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases in the state. The one thing they’re not doing, Bob Atlas said, is panicking. “The pressure is definitely there. It’s being felt,” Atlas, the president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association said. “Nobody is panicking, but the concerns are very real – especially for the frontline workers who have to deal with all the patients, no matter what condition they’re in.”