Wednesday was China's third Medical Workers' Day, an occasion to thank them for their dedication to saving lives and healing the sick — accomplished routinely under heavy pressure and sometimes even extremely dangerous conditions.

What made this year's event even more significant of course was the novel coronavirus outbreak. During the country's fight against this grave public health threat, nearly 4 million medical workers demonstrated their passion, professionalism and spirit of sacrifice. More than 1,700 medical workers were infected with the virus and dozens of them died while fighting the invisible enemy on the front line. They are rightly "the most beloved people" of our times, as President Xi Jinping called them during a visit to Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, in March.

By putting their own lives at risk, they saved the lives of others and helped curb the transmission of the virus by treating those infected. No new locally transmitted infections were reported on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday, neither were new suspected cases or deaths related to the disease. Given how rampantly the pandemic is still ravaging the rest of the world, what China has achieved so far is nothing but a miracle, and its medical workers have helped make that happen.

The contributions the medical workers have made to public health have benefited every one of us tremendously. Over the past several decades they have worked to eliminate leprosy, reduced cases of measles to nearly zero, lowered the baby mortality rate to 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, and extended people's life expectancy to 77 years. They are the guardian angels of all of us.

Yet what the medical workers have received in return is often disproportionate with what they have to give, in the form of onerous work schedules, long working hours and the enormous responsibilities they have to shoulder.

This has led to a brain drain in the medical sector, as evidenced by a shortfall of more than 100,000 pediatricians in the country. Xi has spoken on many occasions of the need to better protect the rights and interests of medical workers and, in particular, preventing any acts of violence against doctors and nurses.

"Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity," ancient Greek physician Hippocrates once said of the profession. The medical workers in the country have attested to the truthfulness of the statement through their passionate, selfless and dedicated work to safeguard public health. They deserve our love and respect not just on one day but every day of the year.