<span style="color: #222222;">Karnataka Health and Medical Education minister Dr. K Sudhakar has ruled out lockdown or semi lockdown due to the Covid surge in the state. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking to media persons in Bengaluru today, he said that the situation is being closely monitored by the Covid Technical Advisory Committee and after a week of observation a meeting will be held with the Chief Minister to discuss the necessity to change the Covid guidelines. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">On the vaccination drive, the minister said that percent of wastage of vaccines has come down now. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He informed that private hospitals will be asked to probe the possibility of administering Covid vaccine free of cost to the senior citizens. The state had reported 1715 new Covid cases and two deaths yesterday. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">At the same time 1048 persons were discharged after recovery. The state had a positivity rate of 1.68 percent and case fatality rate of 0.11percent yesterday.</span>