Cases must drop for sandbox scheme Only 22% of Phuket is fully inoculated published : 7 May 2021 at 05:44 A man walks on a nearly empty Kamala beach in Phuket. Dusida Worrachaddejchai The number of Covid-19 cases in Phuket must reach zero before it reopens to foreign tourists on July 1 as scheduled under the sandbox scheme, says Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the tourism and sports minister. The government is also planning to initiate a plan to collect 300 baht from foreign tourists starting next January to set up a tourism fund for emergency use. "We have to speed up inoculations, particularly in Bangkok, to achieve herd immunity by the fourth quarter. The number of daily infections should be below 200 by the end of this month to restore international tourism confidence," said Mr Phiphat.