RANCHI: Fifteen people in the Jharkhand chief minister's residence here, including Hemant Soren's wife and his two children have tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.
Ranchi chief medical officer Vinod Kumar said that 62 people were tested at the chief minister's residence on Saturday morning.
Reports of 24 of them were available this evening and it was found that Chief Minister Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana Soren, their two sons Nitin and Vishwajit, sister-in-law Sarla Murmu and a bodyguard were among the 15 affected.
Soren himself, his media adviser Abhishek Prasad and assistant Sunil Srivastava have, however, tested negative.
Kumar said that all the affected in the chief minister's residence have mild symptoms of corona and they can be only treated in home isolation.
The state reported 5081 new COVID-19 cases and three fatalities on Saturday.
Of the new cases 1731 were reported from capital Ranchi and 1043 from Jamshedpur.
The caseload has increased to 21098 and the toll to 5164, a health department bulletin said.
Jharkhand Health and Family Welfare Minister Banna Gupta tested positive in the morning.
He has been affected by the virus for the second time and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wished him speedy recovery over phone.
Soren too wished him speedy recovery.