COVID concerns Given that we just saw the highest number of deaths in one day since the COVID pandemic began with COVID deniers seemingly everywhere, our Republican governor, Pete Ricketts, ought to consider a more humanistic approach to COVID prevention mandates than just the number of open hospital beds, which may very well reflect a historical oversupply as much as anything. What about the number of front-line health care providers â nurses, doctors, housekeeping, patient transporters, etc., available? What is the percentage of double shifts worked, rate of new infections among these providers, vacation days in the last six months, mental health visits, suicides and the like. It seems to me that the most unsung, unrecognized and undoubtedly underpaid workers in the system are the custodial and housekeeping workers who are, in fact, those most responsible for environmental control, the hallmark of infection control, in our hospitals and nursing homes. They are, of course, like all essential workers designated by our governor, placed in a position of being unable to collect unemployment if they choose to remain off work because of safety fears so that their corporate employers can continue to cash in on the pandemic, as has been clearly demonstrated.