Families in Italy will be given more than £1,000 towards child care costs under a near-£50 billion package of state aid announced to help the country’s economy recover from the impact of coronavirus.
The handout is intended to help pay for assistance including babysitting and places for their children in summer reception centres.
It forms part of a package unveiled by prime minister Giuseppe Conte, who told citizens: “Your cry of alarm didn’t escape us.”
Others who will benefit from the cash injection include hotel and private beach owners, who will be exempted from their next round of property taxes.
Italy: Coronavirus - In pictures
Restaurants and cafes will be able to use public pavements for free to put out tables so that can fit in more customers while complying with social distancing requirements.
The moves follow the easing of some lockdown restrictions earlier this month as one of Europe’s worst affected countries seeks to edge slowly back closer to normality.
The country’s top-flight football clubs have also voted to resume their Serie A season on June 13, pending government approval.
Elsewhere in Europe, research emerged in both France and Spain indicating that only about one in 20 of people in each country have so far been infected with coronavirus.
The results dash hopes of any rapid progress towards “herd immunity”, which requires around two thirds of a population to have developed antibodies through infection.
Meanwhile, Sweden has said that it will hire up to 10,000 more care workers in an attempt to address weaknesses in elderly care that have been revealed by the pandemic. About half of the country’s 3,460 coronavirus deaths have been among nursing home residents.
