In a pandemic, as state officials desperately shut down parts of society to keep people away from one another, there are some services that most would agree must go on: Grocery stores feed the public. Health care workers tend to the infirm. Others maintain law and order, deliver goods and keep the lights on.

The list, typically, does not include the WWE.

Nevertheless, in Florida, World Wrestling Entertainment has found itself among the services considered “essential,” according to Mayor Jerry L. Demings of Orange County, where the sports entertainment business has a sizable training facility and has held recent events, including its marquee show, WrestleMania, this month.

Mr. Demings, speaking at a news conference on Monday, said the WWE was “not initially deemed an essential business,” and traced the change to discussions with the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials.

Mr. DeSantis issued an executive order that went into effect on April 3, directing people to stay at home unless they were providing essential services or participating in essential activities. In a memo on April 9 from Jared Moskowitz, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, the state added a new category to its list of essential services: “employees at professional sports and media production with a national audience” only if “the location is closed to the general public.”