<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. He informed that private hospitals will be asked to probe the possibility of administering Covid vaccine free of cost to the senior citizens. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The state has reported 1445 new Covid cases and 10 deaths today. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">At the same time 661 persons were discharged after recovery. The state had a positivity rate of 1.84 percent and case fatality rate of 0.69 percent today.</span>