KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded a sharp drop in daily Covid-19 cases with 2,131 new cases on Friday (March 4) but concerns remain over community spread of the coronavirus.

       State Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the figure represented a decrease of 586 cases over Thursday's numbers.

       "Almost all districts in Sabah recorded a declining trend except in Tambunan (an increase of 45 cases), Penampang (up by 15) and Papar (up by two)," he said in his daily Covid-19 briefing.

       Despite the relatively large decrease of over 20% in daily cases, he said the threat of new transmissions still existed, taking into account the very high percentage of sporadic infections.

       He said 69.03% of the new cases were due to sporadic infections in 25 of the state's 27 districts.

       Five districts recorded cases in the triple digits: Kota Kinabalu (677), Penampang (199), Tuaran (145), Papar (122) and Kota Belud (100).

       A total of 2,118 or 99.39% of the 2,131 new cases on Friday were classified under Category 1 and 2, six cases in Category 3, six in Category 4 and one in Category 5.

       Under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) Sabah, Masidi said the authorities had vaccinated 55,540 out of 411,400 children aged between five and 11 years old.

       A total of 231 Covid-19 cases reported on Friday involved unvaccinated children under the age of 11.

       However, 129 of these children were not eligible for the vaccine, being below five years of age.