For most people, the appearance of a police officer in front of their home is something to worry about. It is mostly expected that the police will be looking for you only if you did something wrong and broke the law.

In the current pandemic situation, however, the police in this country are doing some unusual work – checking whether patients with coronavirus comply with the imposed ten-day quarantine. For this purpose, they visit them at the address of residence.

The police know the suffering and problems of quarantined people who have to stay locked in their homes for days, so they consider it a normal human act to ask how they feel and to help, if necessary.

The smile on the face of junior district inspector Milen Raykov was able to disperse the fears of a family from Burgas. The couple had been at home for a week because of the quarantine. No one was allowed to leave the house, and they had to buy a medicine from the pharmacy urgently. Just then, a police officer arrived in front of the family's apartment building for a routine check. With a smile, he asked them if they were feeling well and if they needed help. The woman then said that the doctor had prescribed a new medicine for her husband, but there was no one to take it from the pharmacy. "I will do it!" the policeman said and received a slip of paper with the name of the medicine.

"The man got into his personal car and after 10 minutes appeared at our door with a smile and the medicine in his hand. He gave us courage all the time and shared his personal experience of having the coronavirus,” the grateful woman tells her story on social media. She says that after this she wondered what the point of all the shocking news and hard measures for prevention against the virus was, when a kind word and a kind gesture from a person like this policeman was enough to give you hope for the future.

"There are many people who are ill, but we have to check them, this is our duty,"  police officer Milen Raykov said in an interview with BNR-Burgas, adding: "The most normal thing was to go and buy this medicine."

"I know very well how people feel, given that I myself was quarantined in the summer and 20 days ago I spent another quarantine, because I had symptoms of the virus again. But to my joy it passed quickly and without complications,” says the man who has been working in the system of the Ministry of Interior for 20 years. "That's why I put myself in these people’s shoes. I didn't do anything extraordinary by going to the pharmacy. Luckily, I was there at the right time and the woman said what the problem was. Most of the colleagues in the Ministry of Interior are good people, everyone would have done it. There have been other times when I bought things for people under quarantine. I have brought food, cigarettes and the good thing that impresses me is that people are conscientious and do not go out when they are quarantined.”

It was an inner feeling that made Milen Raykov react to the situation and not expectations of gratitude. He says that in these difficult times we need to be humane, to help each other so that the epidemic can go away faster and we can start living a normal life.

Compiled by: Gergana Mancheva /based on an interview by BNR-Burgas/

English: Alexander Markov