IT News
Imphal, June 15:
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.
“As of now, 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.
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 increasing 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.