NEW DELHI: The home ministry on Saturday directed all states and Union Territories to provide police protection to doctors and medical staff in hospitals and other places where patients diagnosed as Covid-19 positive are being treated as well as where suspected cases are quarantined.The advisory came on a day PM Modi , while interacting with CMs via video conference, expressed distress at instances of attacks against doctors, nurses and paramedics. It has also been communicated to provide necessary police security to doctors and medical staff who visit places to conduct screening of people to find out symptoms of the disease, the home ministry said in a release.Meanwhile, the National Security Act was slapped on four people, including a cleric, in Meerut for allegedly attacking a magistrate, cops and health officials who were sealing a lane — a Covid hotspot — adjoining a mosque in Jali Kothi area on Saturday. Meerut SSP Ajay Sahani said, “After six Jamaatis evacuated from a mosque tested positive, city magistrate accompanied by health officers and police rushed to Jali Kothi area to seal the lane where the mosque is situated. However, locals pelted stones at them.”