High Tide

Share this post

🌊 Free Tide: COVID-19 pandemic damaging children's eyesight

www.hightide.harbourtimes.com

🌊 Free Tide: COVID-19 pandemic damaging children's eyesight

Nearsightedness in children, Vitasoy collecting personal information, children's book authors accused of sedition, and more...

Harbour Times
Aug 30, 2021
2
Share this post

🌊 Free Tide: COVID-19 pandemic damaging children's eyesight

www.hightide.harbourtimes.com

Good morning

Hey everyone! Today’s first story hits a little closer to home given my experience at Zoom University last year. That being said, I also would rather not be constantly walking across campus to get to class…

~ Sze Yu


CUHK study finds higher rates of nearsightedness in school-aged children

CUHK researchers found that the proportion of Hong Kong children who develop nearsightedness has increased an estimated 2.5 times during the coronavirus pandemic(paywalled). This ‘myopia boom‘ is likely linked to the longer periods of time that children are spending looking at screens.

During the pandemic, schoolchildren spent an average of almost seven hours a day looking at screens—a four hour increase from pre-pandemic data. The average amount of time spent outdoors also plummeted from 12.7 hours a day to 24 minutes. Lead researcher Dr Jason Yam Cheuk-sing said insufficient outdoor activities and long stretches of reading, writing and using electronic gadgets corresponded with myopia progression.

Yam suggested all children to go outdoors for at least 2 hours a day to gain more exposure to sunlight. “It can help slow down myopia progression by 30 per cent,” he said.

macbook pro displaying group of people
Chris Montgomery via Unsplash

COVID news

Twitter avatar for @newsgovhk
Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk
About 7,463,000 doses of #COVID19Vaccines have been administered to the public, with about 4,096,400 people receiving their first dose and around 3,366,600 getting their second dose #EarlyVaccinationForAll
news.gov.hk7.46m vaccine jabs givenAbout 7,463,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to the public, with about 4,096,400 people receiving their first dose and around 3,366,600 getting their second dose.
2:32 PM ∙ Aug 29, 2021

Coronavirus in Hong Kong

  • New cases: 3 (imported)

  • Total cases: 12,111 cases so far (113 active cases, 212 total deaths, 11,786 total recovered)

Manila flight suspensions

The Hong Kong government has suspended Philippine Airlines flights from Manila for two weeks. The move comes just after authorities began allowing Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers back into the city on Monday—fully vaccinated foreign domestic workers from the two countries may now work in the city after undergoing 21 days of quarantine.

Turkish airlines flights from Istanbul have also been suspended after three passengers tested positive on flights by each airline last Friday.


Vitasoy to conduct background checks on employees and their families

Beverage company Vitasoy is planning to collect personal information on its workers and their family members. According to Stand News, employees were asked to sign a form agreeing to share information on themselves and family members including background checks and involvement with other organisations.

Vitasoy claims that the new policy is designed to facilitate a computer system upgrade, however many suspect that it is related to former Vitasoy employee Leung Kin-fai, the man who committed suicide after stabbing a police officer in July.

To read what Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions Chief Executive Mung Siu-tat had to say on Vitasoy’s plans, subscribe to High Tide!

Haley Truong via Unsplash

Children’s book authors denied bail after NSL accusations

Three of the five authors arrested over their publication of ‘seditious‘ children’s cartoon books have been charged, and all five have been denied bail. The three books in question—Guardians of the Sheep Village, 12 Warriors of the Sheep Village, and Dustman of the Sheep Village—allegedly intended to “bring into hatred of contempt or to excite disaffection” against the Hong Kong government.

Twitter avatar for @galileocheng
Galileo Cheng @galileocheng
#NationalSecurity Dept arrested 5 members of the general unions of #Hongkong speech therapists for seditious publications Aka Picture book “The guardian of sheep village 羊村守護者”, “The cleaner of sheep village 羊村清道夫” and “12 bravery 羊村十二勇士”
Image
Image
Image
1:28 AM ∙ Jul 22, 2021
1,447Likes1,519Retweets

Other updates

PolyU protestor faces up to 7 years in jail (paywalled) over charges related to the PolyU siege 2 years ago. 18-year-old Chia Kwan-sin pled guilty to rioting on Monday. Police have agreed to drop three other charges given the guilty plea.

Vigilante YouTuber arrested after posting clip of confrontation with suspected pedophile (paywalled). The social media influencer known as Rock Gor and his assistant have been arrested over unlawful detention. Their 23-year-old has also been arrested on suspicion of possession of child pornography.

Ming Pao reports that a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official was the guest of honour at a controversial hotpot dinner attended by top Hong Kong security officials. The private luxury dinner flaunted COVID-19 social distancing regulations, sparking accusations of differential treatment.


Thank you for reading Free Tide!

You can support us by joining HT’s Patreon or leaving a tip on PayPal. You can also help us out by sharing Tide with a friend!

Share High Tide

Or consider subscribing to Paid Tide for more quality content from yours truly!

Share this post

🌊 Free Tide: COVID-19 pandemic damaging children's eyesight

www.hightide.harbourtimes.com
Comments
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Elevation Media Limited
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing