The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii said it has teamed up with the state Department of Health to create a task force to combat the rodent situation in Chinatown. The two groups will be meeting early next to develop a public-private solution that will be implemented throughout Chinatown within the coming weeks.

The chamber, based in Chinatown, said it was approached by the state to help in coordinating an educational program regarding the rats through the Chinese Chamber’s Chinatown Community Development Center.
“We need to take the time to re-educate Chinatown’s merchants of the sanitary standards the state has for their establishments and deliver the message in a way they can understand,” said Dennis Hwang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii president, in a news release.
Larry Geller, an Internet blogger and political watchdog, shot a video of rats leaping and scurrying over produce at an indoor Chinatown food stall on the eve of Thanksgiving. It shows several rats crawling out from under blue tarps that cover bananas and other produce at Pacing's Market, one of a couple of dozen open-air food vendors that operate nearly side by side in Kekaulike Marketplace.

The video also shows rats leaping into and out of food storage baskets and crawling inside bunches of bananas and along a sink belonging to Pacing's Market.
The Health Department issued a citation to the business earlier this month.