Lucknow: After complaints from various parts of Uttar Pradesh about doctors and medical staff being pressurised by landlords and neighbours to vacate their houses, the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department UP, Awanish Awasthi has written to the Director General of UP Police and asked for stern action.

Awasthi has also request provision of security to doctors and medical staff in case of its requirement.

In his letter dated March 25, to DGP UP, ACS Awanish Awasthi wrote -- “It has come to notice that doctors and medical staff involved in treatment of coronavirus patients are being harassed by their neighbours."

"In some cases land lords are pressurising them to leave the rented premises. I have been directed to ask you to stop such incidents from taking places and to provide adequate security to doctors and medical staff if needed.”

Earlier Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had made an appeal for people to not panic, after the announcement of 21 days of lockdown in the country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adityanath said the state had identified 10,000 vehicles for the purpose of home delivery of essentials, if needed, during the lockdown.

“From tomorrow vegetables, milk, fruits, medicines and other essential commodities will be delivered to your door steps for which we have identified more than 10,000 vehicles. These include 4500 PRVs of police, 4200 ambulances of 108 and 102 apart from this government vehicles will also be roped in for the purpose,” he had said.

“I appeal to you not to go to markets to buy essential items, this is in the interest of safety of you and your family and friends. We have enough stocks of all the essential items like milk, vegetables, medicines. People should not go out and should practice social distancing,” Adityanath added.

Meanwhile the Uttar Pradesh government has issued new guidelines to be followed by the people of the state during the lockdown. People providing essential services will be issued permit cards from the local district administration for their movement.

As per the latest data issued by the state government, the total number of positive cases for COVID-19 reached 38 on Thursday with one more positive case reported from Pilibhit.

The break-up of 38 positive people from the state include eight from Agra, three from Ghaziabad, 11 from Noida, eight from Lucknow, two from Pilibhit and one each from Lakhimpur Kheri, Kanpur, Moradabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Shamli.

Till date, 1,493 people have been tested negative while test results of 95 people are still awaited.

More than 15 lakh people have been scanned at the international border while 2,188 villages on Indo-Nepal border have been sanitised. Meanwhile, 72 new suspected cases were admitted to hospitals across the state.