Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana tested negative for the coronavirus on Saturday, two days after the chief minister quarantined himself at home as a precautionary measure after coming in contact with a cabinet minister and party MLA who had contracted the virus.

Health workers collected throat swabs of Hemant and 23 others from the chief minister's residence for Covid-19 test on Saturday morning, officials said. While the test report of Hemant, his spouse and his personal secretary Sunil Srivastava came negative on Saturday itself, the test results of others were not out by the time this report was filed.

“The chief minister and his wife have tested negative for Covid-19. Other samples collected from the chief minister's residence are being tested,” said state health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.

A health worker collects a swab sample of Kalpana Soren, wife of the chief minister, in Ranchi on Saturday Picture courtesy IPRD

On Tuesday, state drinking water and sanitation minister Mithilesh Thakur tested positive for Covid-19, triggering panic among officials and other politicians who had come in contact with him. Ruling JMM’s Tundi legislator Mathura Mahto also tested positive for the coronavirus on the same day. A former MLA Shivpujan Mehta tested positive the next day.

“The samples of suspected individuals are being collected on the basis of contact tracing of the minister and MLA who tested positive for Covid-19,” said Kulkarni, adding that the chief minister had met the MLA as well as the minister before they tested positive for the deadly virus.

Hemant's personal secretary and press advisor have also reportedly quarantined themselves at home since Wednesday.

“We collected swab samples of the chief minister and 23 others from his residence on Saturday for Covid test. Some of the suspects were family members of the CM while some were staff working at his residence,” said Ranchi civil surgeon Dr V.B. Prasad.

Several policemen and government officials have also tested positive for the coronavirus this month in Jharkhand. Lohardaga civil surgeon tested positive for the virus earlier this week. Meanwhile, at least 27 cops from Ranchi alone have tested positive in the past fortnight, bringing various police stations in the state capital under Covid scanner, police officials said.

The government has collected samples of around 1.7 lakh people for Covid-19 test in Jharkhand so far, and more than 3,500 of them have tested positive, data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) indicated.