In the event you missed it, Monday was Doctors’ Day — a day when we would normally give our doctors a cute little shout out for what they do, what they mean to our community and then move on to the next special day on the calendar, whatever it might be.

That has all changed.

Not that a doctor’s day is ever truly routine, but for many, there is an ebb and flow to their day, to their year.

There are the times of year when cold and flu ramp up and fill the waiting rooms with those struggling with the aches, pains and fever.

Then there are the summer months when children home from school discover the hidden patch of poison ivy, scrape a knee or elbow riding their bike or need an X-Ray to rule in or out a broken bone.

That has all changed.

Vicksburg and Warren County have been blessed — so far — to not experience the bloom of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus like other communities in the South. As the largest city in the south Delta area, with a tremendously busy interstate and sites that attract thousands of visitors daily, we are at risk.

But that is not to say that that bloom, that wave of cases is not waiting for us just around the corner.

Sunday, the first confirmed positive test involving a Warren County resident was announced. Two days earlier, a case involving a patient at KPC Promise Hospital, located within Merit Health River Region, was confirmed for an individual from Rankin County.

As has often been said, the virus is here. Either we as a community have done well with our preventative measures, our social distancing and restrictions to curtail the virus from spreading, or it is just waiting, lurking to be discovered.

That is where our doctors, our nurses, our lab technicians, our first responders and so many others come in, to stand up and step in front of us.

They are on the front lines of this fight — a literal fight against an invisible enemy.

There will be more cases of the virus confirmed in Warren County. That is a given.

We are too large of a community, located near other communities who have seen more cases confirmed. 

But maybe, just maybe, the team we have standing on the front lines, in connection to the proactive steps taken by city and county leaders, will be enough to keep our community healthy and safe.

With that in mind, we wanted to share with you a prayer from catholic.org for our doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers and emergency first responders.

Keep them in your thoughts and definitely keep them in your prayers.

Everything has changed. 

“O merciful Father, who have wonderfully fashioned man in your own image, and have made his body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, sanctify, we pray you, our doctors and nurses and all those whom you have called to study and practice the arts of healing the sick and the prevention of disease and pain. Strengthen them in body and soul, and bless their work, that they may give comfort to those for whose salvation your Son became Man, lived on this earth, healed the sick, and suffered and died on the Cross. Amen.”