The House and Senate leadership announced this afternoon that the 60-day legislative session is going into a recess effective immediately that is expected to last eight weeks.

Lawmakers are following the recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is urging the public to refrain from gathering in groups of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The session will resume subject to the call of the Senate President Ron Kouchi and House Speaker Scott Saiki. Lawmakers expect the session will resume where it left off when the risk of spreading the coronavirus has died down.

“The members of the Legislature are very concerned about public health and safety, and that is why we decided to suspend the legislative session,” Saiki said today.

This year’s session is about half-finished. The 51 members of the House and 25 members of the state Senate convened the session this year on Jan. 15, and had been scheduled to adjourn for the year on May 7.

Watch today’s news conference about the recess below: