Official figures show Hong Kong's population dropped by 121,500, or 1.6 percent, to less than 7.3 million over the past year. The government said more than 110,000 people left the SAR for various reasons, such as work and study. A government spokesperson said the drop in population was also because of more deaths than births. University of Hong Kong population expert, Professor Paul Yip, says the outflow of people will have an impact on the city. He spoke to Frank Yung:

The Hospital Authority says they are "rather worried" about an increase in people who need to be hospitalised for Covid-19. The warning comes as health officials reported over 4,100 local infections on Thursday. Aaron Tam reports:

Civil service minister, Ingrid Yeung, says more than 2,200 children aged between six months and three years have been given the Sinovac Covid jab since it became available to the age group a week ago. But she admitted there was no news yet on providing parents with more choice of Covid vaccines, as Timmy Sung reports:

Several Covid-hit mainland cities from the east to west have imposed fresh restrictions and lockdowns on residents to contain flare-ups of the virus. But this time, authorities are said to be imposing a softer type of lockdown by reducing people’s unnecessary movements for just a few days. Natale Ching reports:

A financial services consultancy says business leaders should provide more work-from-home opportunities, after its survey found that a majority of respondents who prefer remote work do not have the luxury of doing it. PwC spoke to over 50,000 employees in 44 countries and regions. Among the 1,000 responses across Hong Kong, almost 90 percent of employees said they preferred to work remotely; but less than half had the option. Michael Cheng, PwC’s people and organisation advisory digital lead partner, told Kelly Yu that firms could do more to build a hybrid work environment:

The Food Expo is underway at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, with visitors expressing mixed views on the product-tasting ban in force for a second year due to the pandemic. Some flouted pandemic social distancing rules to queue up overnight to be among the first to get into the five-day event, as Vanessa Cheng reports:

The MTR Corporation has reported a 77 percent jump in profits in the first half of the year. It said profits from several property development projects were behind the earnings boost even though the local rail business suffered a loss. Frank Yung reports: