FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho www.macaudailytimes.com.mo FRIDAY T. 26º/ 31º Air Quality Good MOP 8.00 3529 “ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ” N.º 08 May 2020 HKD 10.00 DESPITE PRICE HIKES AND CALLS TO GOV’T TO STEP UP WASTE ACROSS THE GLOBE, THE PANDEMIC HAS BOYCOTT SUPERMARKETS, 1 IN EVERY 5 LEFT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AT PARTICULAR PATACAS SPENT USING THE E-VOUCHER HAS SEPARATION BY PARTNERING RISK BECAUSE SO MANY HAVE POOR GONE TO THE SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY WITH CONDOMINIUMS HEALTH AND PRECARIOUS HEALTHCARE P2 P4 P6 AP PHOTO China’s exports rebounded in April to rise 3.5% over a year earlier, but forecasters warned that strength is unlikely to last as the coronavirus pandemic depresses global consumer demand. Exports to the United States rose 2.2%, while imports of American goods fell 11% in a sign of weak Chinese industrial and BORDERS consumer demand despite the lifting of most anti- virus controls, government data showed yesterday. China is touting its assistance to countries struck by the WIDE SHUT coronavirus, saying it has Buses resume Macau-HK service while provided direct government aid to 150 nations, including P4 millions of testing kits. China all residents can test to enter Zhuhai has been providing within its means, including, 3.3 million testing kits, 2.6 million gowns, 53 million masks and 729 ventilators, among other supplies. Additionally, $50 has been donated directly to the World Health Organization. South Korea is expanding its humanitarian shipments of masks to other countries amid waning domestic cases of the coronavirus. The food and drug safety minister, Lee Eui-kyung, told reporters yesterday that a total of 70 countries had requested mask shipments. Lee says South Korea will focus on assisting countries with bigger outbreaks that urgently need masks. She says diplomatic and security relations will also be considered. AP PHOTO BLOOMBERG Singapore The number of people infected in Singapore surged past A Macau-based BLOOMBERG 20,000 as more foreign priest from the workers living in crowded Society of Our dormitories were Lady of the Most diagnosed. The city-state A Priest reported 788 new cases Holy Trinity was to take its total to 20,198. removed due to Foreign workers living in Least his relationships dorms accounted for nearly with women 90% of the cases. Officials Electric buses pose expected the upsurge as and alleged Holy embezzlement no problem to Middle they test residents in the locked-down dormitories. of funds Bridge, engineer says P4 More on backpage P3 page 2 www.macaudailytimes.com.mo MACAU 澳門 08.05.2020 fri MACAU’S LEADING NEWSPAPER Education bureau to release further details on lunch provision ANTHONY LAM secondary schools, because older children, who might care HE Education and Youth for their younger siblings, will TAffairs Bureau (DSEJ) and LAM ANTHONY be at school during daytime, educators across Macau are in leaving nobody at home to take regular communication in res- care of younger children. pect to providing lunch to small The readers hope the DSEJ children under special daycare will ask all schools that provi- services, the bureau stated in a de special daycare services to reply to the Times. offer lunch to children or re- The Times became aware sume meal services at tuition of the issue when it received centers. an email from a group of rea- “Otherwise, the friendly ders. In the email, the readers measure will be ironic - it is expressed their concerns over not friendly at all,” the group lunch for their children un- of readers wrote. “Working pa- der the ‘friendly measure’ em- rents who are working far away ployed by the DSEJ, which re- [or] do not have the same lun- fers to the special daycare that ch time [as] their kids are hel- it has “recommended” schools pless [regarding a lunch arran- provide. gement].” Senior secondary education With regards to that, Wong resumed on May 4, while junior said that his bureau has con- secondary levels will start a tacted schools that provide week later on May 11. Resump- daycare services to allow their tion for other education levels students to bring simple meals is still pending. to school for lunch, although In response to this special the bureau will remain in con- situation, the DSEJ has instruc- tact with stakeholders about ted schools with children’s faci- Usually for lunch periods, ch services, therefore tuition of such conditions at a gover- further arrangements. lities to offer daycare services working parents who cannot centers with such services nment daily press conference. This arrangement will allow to families with such needs. retrieve their children from normally fill this gap in the Wong Ka Ki, head of the De- these children to have their In fact, many families have school for lunch, due to either market.. However, according partment of Education at the own lunches at schools or dual working parents with no geographical distance or work to Macau Daily Times readers, DSEJ, stated that the bureau tuition centers, depending grandparents or domestic hel- arrangements, can buy lunch “the DSEJ does not allow tuto- would announce further de- on where they normally stay pers to help take care of small services for their children from rial centers to provide lunch tails “at an appropriate time.” during lunchtime. “We’ll try children in their families. As a their children’s schools or near- services.” Nonetheless, the readers fear our best to make the arrange- result, the DSEJ came up with by tuition centers. The education regulator in- that the issue will deteriorate ments as similar to normal as the ‘friendly measure’ idea. Not all schools provide lun- directly admitted the existence after the resumption of junior possible,” Wong said. Supermarkets popular choice for e-voucher spending ESPITE criticism cher scheme by raising MOP295 million in the trical appliances. Some Dof price hikes and the price of their mer- market, in a total of 2.37 MOP26 million has been calls to boycott local su- chandise right at the start million transactions. The spent in this industry in permarkets, 1 in every 5 of the scheme. supermarket industry slightly more than 94,000 patacas spent using the The e-voucher, widely alone has absorbed 22% – transactions. The indus- e-voucher has gone to referred to as the con- which equates to MOP65 try has benefited from the the supermarket industry sumption card, is a pro- million – of the city’s third-highest proportion over the first five days of ject initiated by the go- e-voucher income in the of money spent relating to card use, the Macao Eco- vernment in the hopes said period. the scheme. nomic Bureau (DSE) an- of helping small and me- The majority of the re- The first phase of the nounced yesterday. As far dium-sized enterprises in sidents have opted to use scheme, which started on as transaction quantity is the city with the impacts the card when they dine, May 1 and will be in ef- concerned, the industry caused by the Covid-19 as nearly one in three fect until July 31, will put is ranked second, with the pandemic, which has e-voucher transactions MOP3,000 into each re- most money spent in the cordoned off cities and went to the food and be- gistered Macau resident’s food and beverage indus- suspended travel due to verage industry, which pocket, with a daily spen- try. border closures, quaran- has generated MOP63 ding cap of MOP300. The Supermarkets were cri- tine measures and social million from 653,000 tran- second phase will start ticized by netizens this distancing requirements. sactions. directly after, with an ove- week for allegedly taking The first five days of Many have also used rall individual spending advantage of the e-vou- card use has generated the card to purchase elec- amount of MOP5,000. AL www.macaudailytimes.com.mo EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (DIRECTOR)_Paulo Coutinho [email protected] A MACAU TIMES PUBLICATIONS LTD PUBLICATION MANAGING EDITOR_Daniel Beitler [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS_Leanda Lee, Severo Portela, Sheyla Zandonai ADMINISTRATOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Kowie Geldenhuys [email protected] NEWSROOM AND CONTRIBUTORS_Albano Martins, Annabel Jackson, Anthony Lam, Emilie Tran, Irene Sam, OFFICE MANAGER Juliana Cheang [email protected] REACHING OUT! Ivo Carneiro de Sousa, Jacky I.F. Cheong, Jenny Lao-Phillips, João Palla Martins, Joseph Cheung, Julie Zhu, Juliet ADDRESS Av. da Praia Grande, 599, Edif. Comercial Rodrigues, 12 Floor C, Risdon, Linda Kennedy, Lynzy Valles, Paulo Cordeiro de Sousa, Renato Marques, Richard Whitfield, Viviana Seguí MACAU SAR Telephones: +853 287 160 81/2 Fax: +853 287 160 84 DESIGNERS_Eva Bucho, Miguel Bandeira | ASSOCIATE CONTRIBUTORS_JML Property, MdME Lawyers, Advertisement [email protected] +18,000 PokerStars, Ruan Du Toit Bester | NEWS AGENCIES_ Associated Press, Bloomberg, MacauHub, MacauNews, Xinhua For subscription and general issues: [email protected] | Printed at Welfare Printing Ltd Like us on facebook.com/mdtimes SECRETARY_Yang Dongxiao [email protected] SEND NEWSWORTHY INFORMATION AND PRESS RELEASES TO: [email protected] WEBSITE: WWW.MACAUDAILYTIMES.COM.MO www.macaudailytimes.com.mo page 3 fri 08.05.2020 澳門 MACAU MACAU’S LEADING NEWSPAPER prise providing inspection ser- vices. The test will be conducted at the Taipa Ferry Terminal, near Covid-19 testing expands to serve the Immigration Service Buil- ding of the Public Security Po- lice Force, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day. anyone wishing to cross the border Results of the test will be ANTHONY LAM issued on the Macau Colored Health Code platform. The SSM TARTING today, Co- reminds residents that after a BLOOMBERG vid-19 testing will be week’s validity, the test result extended to all Macau will disappear automatically on residents who want or the platform.