The Manipur government urged the Centre on Monday to stop passenger flights to Imphal from June 18-28 in order to clear the backlog of COVID-19 tests and ease congestion at the state”s quarantine centres.

Chief Secretary J Suresh Babu, in a letter to Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said the state government wants to halt incoming passenger flights from June 18-28.

Babu urged the ministry to issue the necessary directives in this regard.

There has been a substantial delay in testing COVID-19 samples in Manipur, as a large number of people have returned from other states in the past few weeks, an official said.

“Around 15,000 samples are yet to be tested,” he said.

Five planes landed at the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport here on Monday, officials said.

Manipur has a total of 492 COVID-19 cases as of now, of which 344 are active.