Dr Kusak broke the news during a live broadcast this morning (July 7).
“This morning, I received a report marking two new cases of infection. One was a Thai person, and the other person is not what we want because he was a tourist under the Phuket Sandbox scheme,” Dr Kusak said.
“He arrived just yesterday and was tested on arrival at the airport. He came from the United Arab Emirates,” he added.
“His test result confirming he was [COVID] positive came out at about 11pm last night. Then medical officers contacted the SHA+ manager of the hotel where he is staying to tell him to not come out of his room,” Dr Kusak said.
“This morning, medical staff will go to the hotel and take him to hospital. Those who came with him will be taken to an ALQ [alternative local quarantine] location if they are considered high-risk,” he added.
“We will work and follow the procedures of the Ministry of Public Health like we have done with Thai people,” he assured.
“So far, we [Phuket] have a total of 755 cases of infection so far [since April 3]. Of those, 708 have been discharged from hospital, and 46 are receiving treatment,” Dr Kusak said.
“Yesterday [July 6], we had two new cases of infection. They were a Thai and a Russian expat,” Dr Kusak added.
The two were not found infected at a local quarantine venue, Dr Kusak said, indicating that the two were confirmed infected while still among the general population.
“Right now, we have 299 rooms in total at local quarantine venues, with 294 people staying in quarantine there. We have 31 rooms left available right now, as some rooms are occupied by more than one person,” he added.
According to the ‘Phuket Sandbox Daily report’ issued by Phuket officials for yesterday (July 6), a total of 2,113 people have arrived in Phuket under the Sandbox scheme from July 1-6, with one person found infected.
In total, 219 people arrived yesterday on four flights: two Singapore Airlines flights, one Emirates flight and one private jet, the report added.
Meanwhile, Phuket officials along with the Tourism Authority of Thailand have launched a ‘Phuket Sandbox Call Center’ at Tel: +66 (0)76 681 084.
The call center provides information in four languages: press 1 for Thai language, 2 for English, 3 for French, and 4 for German.
According to the PPHO daily COVID situation report for yesterday (July 6), as Dr Kusak explained this morning, the two new cases yesterday brought the total number of infections on the island since Apr 3 to 755.
The total does not include six people infected in other provinces adn two people infected abroad.
The two new infections reported yesterday brought Phuket’s total new infections for the past seven days to 27, as follows:
- July 6 - 2 new, total 755
- July 5 - 3 new, total 753
- July 4 - 2 new, total 750
- July 3 - 2 new, total 748
- July 2 - 7 new, total 746
- July 1 - 4 new, total 739
- June 30 - 7 new, total 735
The report does mark that Phuket has so far suffered seven COVID deaths since Apr 3.
The updated map showing the locations of infections on the island reported as follows:
- Wichit - 92 infections
- Phuket Town - 81
- Patong - 78
- Rassada - 69
- Kathu - 60
- Chalong - 52
- Rawai - 47
- Cherng Talay - 45
- Thepkrasattri - 38
- Srisoonthorn - 38
- Kamala - 33
- Karon - 31
- Koh Kaew - 27
- Mai Khao - 11
- Pa Khlok - 10
- Sakhu - 9