State Sen. J. Kalani English chose to retire effective this month due to health reasons.
The Senate Majority Leader said he was infected with COVID-19 in November while he was traveling outside Hawaii. Grateful for having recovered from the disease, he said that he had mild symptoms from the virus. However, he noticed that he has ongoing memory challenges and lethargy.
"I also noticed that I couldn't do some very simple cognitive things," English said, Hawaii Public Radio reported. "You know, like doing a series, if I had 10 folders and (sorting by) ABCD. I would get them mixed up. So that for me, that's when I noticed things were what it was. And in this job, you need to have a very sharp mind. You need to be able to process things very quickly. And I found that I was fatigued all the time."
English, who had his first term as Hawaii State Senator in 2001 said that this current condition will be a hindrance to serve the state. He was diagnosed with the long-term effect of the virus.
While the Democrats would need to provide a list of three candidates to replace the Senator, English prefers State Rep. Lynn DeCoite to become his successor for the remainder of his term.
Gov. David Ige has 60 days to choose the replacement from the list.