Vehicles heading to Zhuhai and Macao stop at toll booths on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Justin Chin / Bloomberg MACAO - The cross-border vehicle traffic of Macao grew by 8.5 percent year-on-year to 457,090 trips in January, while commercial flights in airport rose by 14.2 percent to 5,750 trips, the special administrative region's statistic service said here on Monday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the number of vehicle trips passing through the border gate edged up by 0.3 percent to 298,639. Meanwhile, there were 139,366 trips going through the Checkpoint of Cotai, up by 16.3 percent and 15,769 trips crossing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The DSEC report added that the commercial flights at the Macao International Airport totaled 5,750 trips, among which the trips to and from the mainland increased by 25.0 percent to 2,297, whereas those to and from China's Taiwan region dropped by 3.8 percent to 1,089. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land soared by 86.1 percent year-on-year to 2,300 tonnes, and that of seaborne containerized cargo grew by 17.3 percent to 16,266 tonnes. Seaborne container throughput amounted to 12,869 Twenty-feet Equivalent Unit (TEU), equivalent to 8,713 containers handled, up by 5.6 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. The Macao International Airport handled 3,584 tonnes of air cargo, a growth of 3.7 percent year-on-year, of which gross weight of outward cargo rose by 16.3 percent to 2,592 tonnes, while that of transit cargo declined by 34.2 percent to 420 tonnes. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
Pediatrician Yang Yang checks a child at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center in Guangdong province in January. ZHANG ZIWANG/FOR CHINA DAILY The National Health Commission will step up efforts to improve local pediatric healthcare and enhance the role of information technologies, in a move to deal with straining pediatric services across the country. In a statement posted on its website recently, the commission replied to a political adviser who suggested more medical resources be channeled to address issues in pediatric services, which feature long waits and insufficient time for face-to-face consultations. Methods proposed by the adviser include encouraging child patients to make their first consultations for a new illness at a community-level clinic, and to establish a digital platform that shares information on medical appointments and test results between different levels of medical institutions. In response, the commission said new services have been launched in recent years to reduce waiting hours and avoid long queues formed at hospitals. High-level hospitals across the country are now offering appointments that enable patients to take time slots for a range of examinations via websites, mobile phones or apps, it said. Meanwhile, a preliminary system dedicated to promote remote health care services has been established, which so far covers at least 22 provinces, 1,800 counties and 13,000 medical institutions in China. With the advancement of digital services in the medical sector, 4,100 hospitals are now able to push notifications and offer information to target patients, and 27,77 medical institutions now accept mobile payments. The next step, according to the commission, will see an increasing amount of resources invested in medical services targeting children, such as establishing more pediatric departments at smaller medical institutions and to improve services of existing pediatric hospitals. Information technology also is expected to play a larger role, as the commission will push for a higher proportion of online appointments and spread knowledge on disease prevention and healthcare through digital platforms.
