Italy recruits volunteers to control crowds as lockdown eases

FILE PHOTO: People sit at a reopened restaurant on the waterfront, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Naples, Italy May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File Photo

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government will ask some 60,000 citizens to work as volunteers to enforce social distancing rules as it gradually removes coronavirus restrictions, after scenes of street gatherings over the weekend sparked an outcry.

Italy is gradually relaxing a nationwide lockdown imposed in early March, permitting travel between regions and meetings between friends, and allowing bars to serve drinks as long as a two-metre security distance is respected.