HONOLULU -- The state Department of Health has sent back a plan to eradicate rats from the landlord of a Chinatown market, KITV has learned.

Health officials asked for more specifics and dates by which improvements would be made.

A company called Gerell Management, which holds the master lease for the city's Kekaulike Market submitted a written plan to attack the rat problem on Tuesday.

At Kekaulike Market in Chinatown, KITV saw only a few rats on Tuesday night. Some of them could be seen running across the floor, another of them climbing around boxes of produce. There were not as many rats as were evident two weeks ago when they were all over the place.

The merchants are making it harder to see into the market. They taped newspaper in the windows and painting over other glass that was easy to see through just last week.

The company that has the master lease from the city for the market has installed a lot more rat bait stations all around the building. That is part of the anti-rat plan they submitted to the Health Department.

Gerell Management told the state its pest control crew is now visiting the building three times a week.

State health officials sent the plan back, demanding more specific dates when each improvement will be completed and more details about how the landlord will rat proof the building, sources said.

"It is a problem for Chinatown, so we're trying to address it," Chinese Chamber of Commerce President Dennis Hwang said.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii is partnering with the state Health Department to hold training sessions for Kekaulike Market employees about how to combat the rat problem and protect the food they sell.

"They're really the experts in this area, and all we're doing is providing a venue for them to educate the vendors," Hwang said.

Voluntary classes will be held on Dec. 29 and Jan. 7 at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce offices in Chinatown. The chamber will provide simultaneous translations in Chinese and Vietnamese.

Hwang said the lessons will focus on "How to store food properly, what kind of containers to use, what kind of different controls that need to be done."

Controls like not leaving potential food for rats and mice out at night. KITV found an example of this fly-infested produce left outside in a box after the market closed on Tuesday.

The state Health Department plans to hold the training sessions in the mid- to late-afternoon -- when business at the market is slowest. That also allows state health inspection staff to conduct the classes during their workday, avoiding any overtime costs, because the state is not allowing any overtime.