Health care providers are seeing a surge in demand for the hepatitis A vaccination following news of tainted fish sold at a number of Oahu restaurants and grocery stores.

“As soon as the news came out, we had a huge number of calls,” said Dr. Pani Shoja, medical director of Urgent Care Hawaii, which operates four clinics on Oahu. “They started coming into our clinics (Tuesday) and then all day (Wednesday) they were coming in.”

Shoja said about 20 percent of the demand is from people who already were vaccinated following last summer’s hepatitis outbreak, when 292 people came down with the disease that was linked to imported frozen scallops at Genki Sushi restaurants.

She said the more recent news of tainted fish apparently reminded people to get a second shot, which ensures lasting immunity.

Rachel Lee, senior practice manager of MinuteClinic, said the walk-in clinics at select Longs Drugs stores across Oahu are seeing increased demand for the hepatitis A vaccine as well.

There’s an ample supply of vaccine at all nine MinuteClinic locations, she said, though there could be sporadic outages if demand continues to increase.

Central Medical Clinic at Kuakini Medical Plaza hasn’t seen much of a demand yet, according to administrator Keith Katano. His impression, he said, is that most of the clinic’s patients have already received the vaccination.

Elsewhere, more than 250 state employees received the hepatitis A vaccination at a special event held Wednesday at the state Capitol.

The event offered shots by Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and 5 Minute Pharmacy. It was originally set up to allow previously vaccinated state employees to get a second hepatitis A shot.

On Tuesday the state Department of Health reported the recall of 2,325 pounds of imported cubes of frozen, raw tuna distributed to about a dozen stores and restaurants after they tested positive for hepatitis A.

The contaminated raw fish, imported from Indonesia and distributed by Tropic Fish Hawaii LLC, was used to prepare poke and was sold between Thursday and Monday. But Tropic Fish Hawaii was able to retrieve and verify the disposal of only 1,440 pounds. That leaves 885 pounds of fish that might have been consumed.

The frozen fish was delivered to Times Supermarkets in Aiea, Kailua, Kaneohe, Kunia, Liliha, Mililani and Waipahu, and at Shima’s Supermarket in Waimanalo. It was also distributed to GP Hawaiian Food Catering, Maili Sunset Bar &Grill (aka Da Crawfish &Crab Shack), and the ABC Store at 205 Lewers St. in Waikiki.

Tropic Fish Hawaii previously reported that Aloha Sushi on Nimitz Highway had also sold the fish, but that was corrected by the company on Wednesday.

Tropic Fish Hawaii, a subsidiary of CMU and Associates of Hawaii island, received a warning letter from the U.S. Food &Drug Administration in August following an inspection that found unsanitary conditions and raw fish sitting on a concrete floor, among other things.

Asked about the letter Wednesday, the company said it took corrective action to address the FDA concerns.

“Tropic Fish Hawaii hired two independent auditors to assist the company in addressing FDA’s concerns, including a local auditor with the Hawaii Seafood Council and a third-party auditor from the mainland,” the company said in a statement. “The two independent auditors determined that the appropriate changes had been made in compliance with FDA mandated Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point program.”