TODAY'S edition of The Westmorland Gazette honours many of our brave key workers.

Our front page roll call of names was inspired by you, our readers, and your many nominations of local people who deserve praise.

These selfless individuals have not only been working hard in our community for the past few months to keep us safe - but many have been doing so, under the radar, for years prior to the pandemic.

We are delighted to give them this recognition and thank them for everything they do.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus situation in the UK is now at a delicate stage.

After the Prime Minister said last week that we are 'past the peak' and prepares to reveal his lockdown exit strategy this weekend, some businesses and services are starting to reopen with precautions in place.

But this should not be seen as a green light for everything to get back to normal.

The warnings by police, health and Lake District chiefs come from a place of concern that people think they can 'ease the lockdown themselves'.

The list of names on our front page will hopefully act as a reminder to people that the whole point of lockdown was to 'stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS'.

We cannot risk a second spike in the virus which could threaten many more lives and create extra pressure on the health and care sectors.

We can help the very people we are celebrating, by simply sticking to the guidelines until we are officially told otherwise.

In Cumbria we have an older population, high infection rates and people are still dying in our hospitals and care homes.

And as health chief Colin Cox says, a strong system of contact tracing designed to nip possible future outbreaks in the bud once we come out of lockdown is still three weeks away.

So it is vitally important that we keep looking out for each other and are not lulled into any false sense of security.

And turning once again to our front page - in a week when we mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day and our thoughts turn to those who fought to keep us safe in the past, we say to those who are doing the same in the present, that you are all heroes!