Virus-hit Italy has closed its schools until September, but is drawing up plans to re-open nurseries and hold mini summer schools for children desperate to play after two months of lockdown. Kindergartens and day nurseries may be used from June for small groups of children aged zero to six years, according to plans being drawn up by the education ministry and published Saturday by the Corriere della Sera daily.

The proposals, based on strict systems used in Denmark and Norway to reopen nurseries, will need the go-ahead from a scientific committee. The closure of schools until the end of the academic year has been one of the more controversial anti-coronavirus measures imposed in Italy, with many saying it overly penalizes working women and children.