The experience that a team of healthcare providers from Hawaii gained when they carried out vaccinations during last year’s measles outbreak in Samoa will be valuable as they prepare to vaccinate hundreds of thousands Hawaii residents for COVID-19.
According to Hawaii News Now Lieutenant Governor Dr Joshua Green sees the deployment of the Hawaii health team to Samoa as essential in their bid to vaccinate thousands of residents against the coronavirus.
Dr Green, a medical doctor, spearheaded that mission to Samoa late last year.
“It feels like fate challenged us to step up in Samoa. And now with that experience we’re able to know what some of the challenges are,” Dr Green said.
He acknowledged the COVID-19 mass vaccination effort ahead will not be easy but his experience and the mission in Samoa last year shows that it can be done.
“We estimate we are going to vaccinate about 70 per cent of (the people in) our state at least, which is probably 850,000 people so it’s a bigger lift. It will take months.”
He expects phase one to begin before the end of the year.
The first phase will be mostly done at the hospitals and will be for health care providers and the elderly in institutions.”
Around February, March vaccinations will be opened to everyone who’s higher risk.
LT Governor Green who tested positive for coronavirus in September said, “ That’s when we’re going to have to set up larger sites to vaccinate people.”
