Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday recognized grocery store employees, hundreds of thousands of whom found themselves thrust to the front lines of the covid-19 pandemic, going to work in order to supply what the rest of the state needed to stay home.

Such employees have had access to covid-19 vaccine appointments for just under a week. Wolf estimated there are about 180,000 such employees across the state.

“Grocery store workers have been on the front lines of this pandemic right from the very beginning, ensuring that — even in this once-in-a-century pandemic that we’re gone through – all of us could access life-sustaining food,” he said.

Wolf’s remarks came as he visited a Weis Market in Cumberland County.

“Over the past year, our associates and many others throughout our industry have risen to the challenge,” said Jonathan Weis, chief executive of the grocery store chain.

Weis Markets are part of the federal pharmacy partnership, meaning its pharmacies work directly with the federal government to procure vaccine and get shots into arms in local communities.

Wolf said residents “owe a debt of gratitude” to grocery store workers who, as the state shut down last year, did not have the luxury of telework and were deemed life-sustaining employees.

“We should all celebrate the fact that this group of front-line heroes now has the option to be vaccinated,” he said.

Asked why grocery store employees were not included in the high-priority Phase 1A of the state vaccination plan, Wolf said the state was following federal guidance.

“The initial categories that came out of the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) were done for some reason. We followed those guidelines and we changed them when we thought it was important,” he said, pointing to the state’s decision to open vaccine appointments to grocery employees, law enforcement, firefighters and food and agriculture workers March 31.

Appointments opened for the rest of those in Pennsylvania’s Phase 1B of the plan on Monday.

Grocery store managers expressed relief at the news last month that their employees would be eligible for the vaccine sooner rather than later.

“My associates are, as a lot of the front-line employees are, desperate to get a solution,” Tom Charley, whose family owns three Charley Family Shop ‘n Save stores, said at the time. “The sooner we can get this, the more comfortable and the sooner we can get a feeling of normalcy in our day-to-day lives.”

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