Manipur: COVID Test to be Discontinued for Air Passengers

Manipur has decided to discontinue Covid-19 testing of incoming air passengers at the Imphal International Airport with effect from Friday, officials said.

Principal Secretary (Health & Family Welfare), Imphal, V Vumlunmang said, "Thermal screening surveillance will be made more vigorous by increasing the number of screening counters at Imphal airport from one to four. Covid testing will be done for any symptomatic persons .Further, any traveller with history of contact with a Covid positive person will be tested," said Vumlunmang.

The state Covid task force took the decision in a meeting held on December 14, said an order, adding that the percentage of air passengers testing positive for Covid-19 has reduced to about 1 % and targeted testing is not considered essential when the positivity rate is below 2 %.

In another development, with Manipur's Covid-19 active cases declining for the past couple of days, the state authority has decided to close down six Covid Care Centres (CCC) opened in five districts.

The CCCs identified for closure are UNACCO and RD Wing in Imphal West district, Bal Bhavan in Imphal East district, Lamding Higher Secondary School in Thoubal district, Model Higher Secondary School in Noney district and Sadbhavna Mandap in Churachandpur district.

The total number of Covid-19 active cases in Manipur fell below the 2,000 mark in the past two days, taking the state's total active cases tally to 1,872.

Chief minister N Biren wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, "No. of Covid positive in the state is decreasing day by day, earlier it was above 3000/3300 but since 2/3 days, positive no has been decreased below 2000/.Thank God. My dear friends please follow SOP strictly and take more care. Let's bring down to 0 (Nil)."

As of Thursday, the state's total number of Covid-19 cases is 27,454 while the total number of recovered cases is 25,250. The recovery rate of the state stands at 91.97%. There also have been 332 Covid-19 deaths in the state.