VIDEO: Lt. Gov. Josh Green says most Hawaii students should be able to return to classrooms by mid-May

Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the introduction of vaccination in Hawaii is on track to enable face-to-face classroom learning by mid-May, adding that students and parents need to do so ASAP.

“I think when our educators are vaccinated we should open schools, that simple. And I think that’s happening right now, we’re aggressively vaccinating our teachers and those who support schools across the board, ”he said. “There is no real reason for May 15th to come. We cannot do our best to encourage all of our schools to return in person.”

Hawaii could deliver up to 80,000 doses per week, but the federal government is still not far from reaching the state’s vaccine distribution capacity. Green said Hawaii is expected to receive 42,800 doses this week, 49,600 next week, and 50,700 the week after. In addition, the military in Hawaii will receive its own supplies and CVS pharmacies will receive over 4,000 doses of vaccine, which will be distributed in select Long locations across the state.

“It’s going well. In fact, it would be even better if we had more of the Feds,” said Green. “We see lowercase letters week after week. We don’t know yet, but it’s going pretty well.”

Green, who leads both the vaccine rollout and the safe travel program, said he hopes to change travel requirements so travelers can bypass testing requirements, provided they can show they’ve taken the second dose of a vaccine for at least two weeks long received after arrival. Green expects CISA exempt workers to travel under this new rule by March 1st, all inter-island travelers by April 1st, and all travelers from the mainland by May 1st.

“It really means we can have a lot of safe travelers by the summer, and remember, we are safe,” he said. “Because on May 1st we’re going to have 850,000 shots, so we’re going to have this protection so that no matter what, we’re basically safe. This is how we restore our economy very quickly. We would probably see a huge increase in visitors, let’s say autumn that way. “

Green asked questions on a variety of topics, including a bill that would ban lieutenant governors from doing part-time jobs. Some see the move as a target for Green, who works as an ambulance on the island of Hawaii alongside his work at the State Capitol.

“To be honest, we just don’t have time for political games,” he said. “Any manager who is not currently fully focused on stopping COVID is really not doing the people they deserve.”

Green added that the law in question would likely come into effect in November 2022, it would hardly affect him personally.

“I will not be lieutenant governor at this point,” he said. “People will either elect me as governor or not. It’s not a secret. But I think we should focus on COVID and save lives. “

Spotlight Hawaii, which sheds light on Hawaii-related issues, will air live on the Honolulu Star Advertiser‘s Facebook page at 10:30 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Join Ryan Kalei Tsuji and Yunji de Nies for a chat with guests this month. Click here to see previous conversations and see the rest of the schedule for that month.