Manipur wants to stop flights for 10 days to clear Covid-19 test backlog

Manipur is struggling with a rising backlog of samples waiting to be tested for Covid-19.

The Manipur government on Monday asked the Centre to stop flights to Imphal for 10 days to enable it to clear a backlog of Covid-19 tests of incoming passengers.

The Manipur government has asked the Centre to stop all five daily flights landing in Imphal for a period of 10 days. (PTI)

“As on date, there are five flights landing in Imphal. The state government has decided to stop all passenger flights for a period of 10 days to clear the pending backlog of testing and also clear the congestion in quarantine centres. As discussed, I request you to stop all passenger flights to Imphal from 19-06-2020 to 28-06-2020. Kindly issue necessary instructions to all airlines, DGCA and the AAI,” chief secretary J Suresh Babu said in a letter to Usha Padhee, joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry.

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The letter also said that due to heavy inflow of people there is a substantial delay in testing and there is a huge backlog of 15,000 samples pending results.

Manipur’s Covid-19 tally stands at 458 out of which there are 367 active cases.

The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 has been rising since the government allowed people to return home last month.

The first batches arrived by trains before flight services were resumed towards the end of May.