Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli said Wednesday that Italy's night-time curfew aimed at preventing COVID-19 contagion is set to continue to kick in at 10pm for the time being.
Many regional governments and Matteo Salvini's League party have been pressing for the curfew to start at 11pm as the nation's COVID-19 restrictions are gradually relaxed.
Premier Mario Draghi's cabinet is set to meet later on Wednesday to approve a degree with the coronavirus-linked measures that will be in force from Monday until the end of July..
The decree will reintroduce yellow zones, where measures are less severe as the contagion risk is considered only moderate, in the country's tiered system of restrictions.
At the moment regions can only be classed as high-risk red zones or medium-high-risk orange zones.
A ban only movement between regions will be scrapped by the new decree, according to a draft.
People will be able to move freely between yellow zones and obtain a 'green pass' for travel involving orange and red zones.
The pass will be valid for six months for people who have had COVID or have been vaccinated and for 48 hours for people who have not, but have tested negative for the coronavirus.
People who make false statements to obtain the pass will risk jail.
Theatres, museums and cinemas will be allowed to reopen and open-air concerts and other shows will be allowed too.
Restaurants will be able to serve people at outdoor tables at lunch and dinner.
But restaurants that do not have outdoor spaces will have to wait until June 1 to serve people at tables again and then only at lunchtime.
The amount of time high-school students spend in class is set to increase, although sources said it will not go up to 100%, as the government had hoped, because local authorities said this could lead to public transport services being overloaded.
So high-school students will have at least 60% of their classes in school in orange and yellow zones and at least 50% in red zones, with the rest being taught via distance learning.
At the moment, high-school students are having all their lessons via distance learning in red zones and 25-50% in orange and yellow ones.
Open-air swimming pools will be able to open from May 15 in yellow zones.
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