Thanksgiving Break is normally a time for students to relax and unwind before finals and also visit with family and enjoy the holiday.

But like many things during the COVID-19 pandemic, Thanksgiving Break looks a lot different this year.

Many students will be returning home amid an incredible surge of COVID-19 cases around the country, with over 172,000 new cases and 1,923 deaths being reported on Nov. 18.

These numbers are frightening regardless of the time of year, but considering many people will be tempted to attend or host large family gatherings for Thanksgiving, they are even more concerning.

We at the Daily Eastern News hope that students and other members of the Eastern community remain cautious over Thanksgiving Break and avoid any large gatherings.

We know that many students may not have seen even close family members very much over the last several months, and have not seen more distant relatives for likely even longer.

We know that people will want to visit their grandparents and enjoy a big Thanksgiving dinner, but it is simply not worth it.

It is better to not see your grandparents over Thanksgiving Break that risk them getting sick and possibly never seeing them again.

It is unfortunate that we have to sacrifice Thanksgiving plans this year, but COVID-19 has forced billions of people around the world to make difficult sacrifices and miss out on important things.

We will all have to make more sacrifices in the near future.