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As much of the community remained sheltered in safety during this pandemic, one group of men and women left their homes to face a relatively unknown and unpredictable foe inside the halls of our local hospitals.

You might call this dedicated group of workers health care professionals. We, like most of the community, prefer to call them heroes.

For more than two months the nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, patient care assistants, monitor technicians, housekeepers, administrators and countless other workers in our local hospitals have come to work to fight the virus since the crisis began.

These men and women have done so with perseverance and abundance of precaution despite the risks to their personal health and the health of their families.

A look inside the hallways of the second floor of Merit Health Natchez — the front line in just one of our local healthcare facilities — provides an example of the battle these healthcare heroes are facing every single day.

Many nurses and doctors have remarked about how unprecedented the current crisis has been for their careers.

As the crisis emerged, hospital workers scrambled to transform a portion of the second-floor ICU into a COVID-19 unit. In quick fashion, the hospital retrofitted patient rooms to prevent the spread of the virus.

We — and they — know the battle is not over. The virus has not disappeared and new COVID-19 cases could spike if residents let their guards down.

As National Hospital Week 2020 comes to an end, no outpouring of support seems adequate to acknowledge the selflessness displayed by our local healthcare heroes who literally put their lives on the line in the face of the highly contagious disease.

As a community, we must stay vigilant and remain aware until a vaccine or other successful medical therapy is developed. That is one of the best ways to say thanks to those keeping our community safe.