Grocery stores across Canada have found themselves and their workers at the forefront of a global pandemic and they seem to be doing everything they can to protect them.

Major chains like Sobeys, Costco and Loblaws have each lead initiatives to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and protect employees while still staying open and allowing customers to access essential supplies and food.

In a press conference today, Canada's Chief of Public Health Dr. Theresa Tam said that essential services like grocery stores are being given guidance on how to practice social distancing and hygienic measures to ensure everyone has safe access to food.

So far, measures that grocery stores have implemented include elderly hours, limiting product purchases, social distancing, Plexiglas barriers in front of cashiers, encouraging the use of debit and credit, wage raises and change of operation hours.

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We are working very quickly to install plexi-glass shields in all of our stores, at both pharmacy and cash lanes, to help further protect our colleagues and customers. Thank you for your understanding.

A post shared by Loblaws Ontario (@loblawson) on Mar 22, 2020 at 5:46pm PDT

The call for grocery stores to do more to combat the spread of COVID-19 came last week when there was concern that frontline workers were more likely to be exposed to the virus.

This is how Costco in Toronto is practicing social distancing - 📹 Jazz https://t.co/fDwiAdV09S #Toronto #Coronavirus #COVID19 #COVID2019 #COVIDToronto #Costco pic.twitter.com/T2Lp3IKeGe

— blogTO (@blogTO) March 19, 2020

One by one, various supermarkets have begun to make changes, both on an in-store level and on an operational level with things like wage increases and hiring workers laid off by restaurants, following each other's lead to ensure safe measures are being taken.

There's been concerns, however, that in some cases, social distancing measures have led to lineups while online-grocery delivery services have been inundated with orders.

When it comes to the supply chain, Loblaws Executive Chairman Galen Weston has made it clear that it's being continuously replenished in the face of panic-buying and that besides hand sanitizer, there's no shortage of essential supplies.