Ranchi, Aug 4 (IANS): Jailed former Ministers Enos Ekka and Raja Peter along with 52 other inmates of Birsa Munda central jail here have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials said that Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana underwent a COVID-19 test for the second time on Tuesday after 17 members of his staff tested positive for the disease.

The Chief Minister's Private Secretary has also tested positive for COVID-19.

Ekka and Peter were jailed in separate murder cases.

In the last 24 hours, more than 800 Covid cases have been registered in the state, pushing the total tally to 13,700.

Three fatalities were reported from East Singhbhum district, taking the overall toll to 125 in the state. The mortality rate has increased to 0.93 per cent.

As per the data provided by the health department, the number of active cases in the state stands at 8,581.

Due to the rampant rise in coronavirus cases across the state, the recovery rate has fallen to 35.50 per cent.

So far, 3,53,004 samples have been collected in the state of which 3,26,060 have turned out to be negative.