FILE- In this May 24, 2017, file photo, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf appears at an event in Erie, Pa. Wolf wants to use $145 million in a workerþÄôs compensation fund to help businesses cope with the coronavirus pandemic. His proposal would require a vote from the Republican-majority Legislature to appropriate the money, and there has been no deal struck to accomplish that.

HARRISBURG — Reflecting on a year of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that Pennsylvania has been through a “tough year” but that he sees “light at the end of the tunnel” with the growing availability of vaccines.

Wolf announced on March 6, 2020, that Pennsylvania had confirmed its first two cases of the new coronavirus. Since then, Pennsylvania has counted more than 944,000 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 and attributed more than 24,200 deaths to it.

“I’m not sure there isn’t anybody in Pennsylvania who isn’t frustrated, sad, maybe even grieving for a loved one who has been lost,” Wolf said Friday at a news conference outside a Rite Aid pharmacy in Steelton, where people with appointments were waiting to be vaccinated.

“There’s a lot of sadness,” he said. “But at this point, though, we have something we didn’t have a year ago, and that is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been trending down for weeks after a January peak. More than 868,000 people have been fully vaccinated in Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health, and Wolf asserts the state’s vaccine rollout is showing signs of improvement after early stumbles.

Inside the Rite Aid, Robert Morris took his 83-year-old-old mother, Darlene Morris, to get her first shot. Morris had spent weeks looking for appointments for his mother and three other older family members before finding availability at the drugstore.

“We’ve been trying to keep her as safe as possible throughout this whole thing, and I know she gets antsy because she can’t go anywhere,” Morris said.

Now, he said, “she’s raring to go. It should hopefully make things easier for everybody. Less stress.”

Few could’ve imagine what the virus had in store for Pennsylvania after those first cases a year ago. Within weeks, Wolf had shuttered school buildings, closed thousands of businesses and ordered millions of people to stay at home — steps he said were necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19.