When COVID-19 hit the United States in 2020, health care professionals across the nation were pushed to their limits. They were dealing with an unheard-of disease and the protocols for treating it were changing on nearly a daily basis. The number of infections and deaths were growing exponentially.

Major medical centers in the biggest cities were hard-pressed to deal with the crisis. Small rural hospitals that don’t have the staff, equipment or budgets of those big medical centers were hit even harder.

Effective vaccines have ended the crisis phase of COVID, which will apparently be with us in some form or another for a long time. The hard-working medical heroes who labored through that crisis phase are getting at least a little bit of a break.

And in two area communities, the federal government is providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure the medical workers there will be able to deal with another surge of COVID-19 or the arrival of some other nasty disease.

Belmond Community Hospital in Wright County received $984,600. That will be spent to acquire cold storage for vaccines, medical supplies, laboratory equipment and personal protective equipment. Software and equipment for telehealth programs will also be purchased.

Pocahontas Community Hospital received $344,200. Among other things, that money will be spent on creating negative pressure rooms for patients who need to be isolated.

All of that money came from the federal COVID relief law called the American Rescue Plan Act. It was channeled through the United States Department of Agriculture.

We congratulate the leaders of those two hospitals who crafted good solid proposals that resulted in that federal money coming into our area.

Hopefully, we will never experience something like the worst days of the pandemic again, but it is wise and necessary to be prepared for the worst. The recently awarded federal money will help the hospitals in Belmond and Pocahontas do just that.