WAIKOLOA — Shiono Sushi Waikoloa is awaiting test results of just two employees who were ordered to be tested for hepatitis A after an employee there was diagnosed with the infection.
The restaurant’s 23 other employees have all tested negative, with all but two of those 23 cleared to return to work.
Yuka Kawakami, Shiono Sushi Waikoloa administrating manager, said Thursday afternoon that those two employees tested negative for the disease, but were still awaiting official clearance from the Hawaii State Department of Health.
The employee who was diagnosed continues to recover away from the restaurant, said Waikoloa shop manager Naoto Yamagishi. Yamagishi said the employee will not be able to return to work until she tests negative for the infection.
The employee is believed to have contracted the infection on Oahu. No other infections have been connected to the Waikoloa store or either of Shiono Sushi’s other stores in Kailua-Kona and Mauna Lani.
Store management has also said they haven’t had any reports of their customers contracting the disease.
After the employee was diagnosed, the location’s 25 employees were required to get tested and couldn’t return to work without a negative test result.
The store remained open while employees underwent testing by staffing the location with employees from the other locations.
The Department of Health has said only people who ate at the restaurant during the specific window of July 5 to July 21 would have been exposed to the disease, though the risk of infection is considered “very low.”
That window was identified as the time frame when the employee diagnosed with hepatitis A was working at the store.
Anybody who ate at the restaurant outside of that window is not considered to have been exposed to hepatitis A.
Yamagishi said Thursday that business has been running smoothly at the location recently.
Shoppers at Island Gourmet Markets at Queens’ MarketPlace, where Shiono Sushi Waikoloa is located, browsed through the restaurant’s selection of prepared foods and many shoppers appeared to be eating food from the restaurant.
Island Gourmet Markets representatives declined to have shoppers interviewed on store premises.
The DOH has confirmed 93 cases of hepatitis A, all of which were in adults. The department said everyone who contracted the infection was on Oahu during their respective exposure period.