Gandhinagar, Aug 8 (IANS): The death toll in Gujarat due to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) has risen to 2,606 as 22 more patients succumbed to the dreaded virus, officials said.

The state on Friday saw 1,074 positive cases being detected from 26,591 tests. This has taken the total number of infections to 68,885.

On Friday, 1,370 patients were discharged. So far, 51,692 have been discharged in the state.

Officials said that in the first seven days of August, 7,452 positive cases have been registered in Gujarat.

On Friday, the new hotspot for the Coronavirus in Gujarat - Surat - registered 231 cases while Ahmedabad saw 153 new cases.

Vadodara, for the second day, saw its daily spike shooting past the hundred mark with 110 fresh infections.

Vadodara was followed by Rajkot -- 90, Jamnagar 52, Junagadh 46, Mahesana 43, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar, 27 each, Kutch 24, Gir-Somnath 23, Amreli and Dahod with 21 each.

The death toll due to Covid-19 in Ahmedabad has reached 1,630. A total of 486 people have died in Surat, 95 in Vadodara, 45 in Gandhinagar, 40 deaths in Rajkot, 30 deaths in Patan, 26 deaths in Bhavnagar, 24 in Aravalli, 22 in Mahesana, 17 deaths in Panchmahals, 16 deaths in Banaskantha, 15 in Kheda, 14 deaths in Anand and 11 have died in Bharuch.

The death toll rate of Ahmedabad which used to be around 81 per cent of the total toll during the peak in June gradually got lower. On Friday, it came down to 62.54 per cent.

Gujarat's mortality rate has come down under 4 to 3.78 per cent, but is still one of the highest in the country.

Till now, the health authorities have conducted over 9 lakh tests, 9,30,373 RT-PCR tests in Gujarat. Of the total RT-PCR tests conducted, 8,61,488, have been found negative.

There are 14,587 active cases, out of which the condition of 14,5016 is stable, whereas 86 critical patients are still on ventilator.

Currently, over 4.8 lakh people quarantined in the state.