Briefs | Kiang Wu not planning to increase delivery fees 

The director of the Kiang Wu Hospital, Ma Hok Cheung, said that the hospital is currently not planning to increase delivery fees for non-local parents, according to a report by TDM.  Earlier, the Health Bureau (SSM) proposed increasing delivery fees for non-local parents, however Ma claimed that the Kiang Wu will not increase the fees despite SSM’s proposal. In 2017, a total of 3,355 women delivered children at the Kiang Wu hospital. Of these, 811 women were non-local residents, and in 24 cases, both parents were non-local residents.  Ma believes that non-local parents choose to deliver children in Macau mainly because they believe in the quality of Macau’s medical services. Questioned on the fees currently charged for non-resident deliveries, Ma Hok Cheung refused to give an actual figure, saying that the “fees are related to the structural aspects of the hospital” and depend on several aspects, such as the type of room hired and medical services required.

Cellist Brunello’s concert tomorrow

The Macau Orchestra and Italian cellist Mario Brunello will play in the concert “The Musical Footprint of Dvořák” tomorrow at the Macau Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium. The concert is dedicated to Czech composer Dvořák, who is considered as one of the beacons of 19th century nationalist music. The composer’s works combine the German and Austrian symphonic traditions with the magic of Slovak folk music. Italian cellist Mario Brunello has been the only Italian musician to win the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow since 1986. Brunello was praised by the British Gramophone company as a “great spirit” for his poetic artistic talent, and his performance was described as “intense and passionate” by the The Strad magazine. In this concert, Brunello and the Macau Orchestra will perform the Cello Concerto by Dvořák as well as the composer’s Bohemian-inspired Symphony No. 8.

Notification on nuclear power plant incident

The Unitary Police Service has stated that they received a notice on Wednesday regarding an operational event at Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station, located in western Guangdong Province. The notice was sent by Guangdong Province’s Emergency Management Office, via the mechanism established under the “Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Consensus in Case of a Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant Emergency.” The notice mentions that on March 6, when Yangjiang nuclear power plant Unit 1 was undergoing planned maintenance, staff accidentally triggered an alarm within the monitoring system while they were clearing a system blockage. The monitoring system was immediately overridden to stop any effects of the false alarm. According to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, measured over seven levels, the incident was a “Below Scale”, i.e. “Level 0” event. This means it had no effect on the safe operation of the nuclear power station, the health of its staff, the safety of the nearby public, or the protection of environment.