KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Covid-19 infection rates continued to show a downward trend with a decrease of 700 cases to 2,174 from 2,874 cases reported on Sunday (Feb 27).

       Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said seven districts recorded three-digit cases with Kota Kinabalu maintaining the highest number of cases at 555 cases on Monday (Feb 28).

       It was followed by neighbouring Penampang district with 252 cases, Putatan (223) Papar (204), Tuaran (181), Keningau (105) and Kota Belud (101).

       "A total of 17 more districts recorded double-digit cases, while two districts recorded single-digit cases, followed by one district, Semporna, which did not record any new cases on Monday," he said in a statement.

       However, he said the percentage of sporadic cases or symptomatic infections was still high at 62.74% which could trigger new cases at any time.

       He also noted that the decrease in the number of daily cases was due to the reducing number of backlog cases in Kota Kinabalu, Penampang and Putatan.

       A total of 2,150 or 98.9% of the 2,174 cases on Monday was diagnosed under the mild Category 1 and 2, eight cases in Category 3, while 10 cases in Category 4 and six more cases in Category 5.

       On the National Children's Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICKids), Masidi said so far Sabah had successfully vaccinated 45,381 out of 411,400 children between the ages of five and 11.

       He said a total of 246 new infections on Monday involved children under 11 years old, who had not been vaccinated, with 121 of them being children who were not yet eligible for the vaccine, namely under five years old.

       Sabah had hit its highest of over 5,000 new cases at least three times last week.