Malta is planning repatriation flights for 250 Italians who are being held in quarantine after testing positive to Covid-19 or having been in touch with an infected person, Italian news agency Ansa reports.

Apart from Italian nationals, a number of German, Spanish and French students, who came to Malta to learn English, are also expected to be repatriated as soon as their quarantine period expires.

Ansa reports that the flights are expected in the coming days but it is not known if anyone who is still positive to Covid-19 will be allowed to leave.

The number was Italian students in quarantine in Malta was initially 70, but it has now reached 250.

The closure of the schools, according to Ansa, has transformed a stay in Malta to learn English into “an uncontrolled holiday” for thousands of European youths.

The report says that students who are not in quarantine are free to do as they please, and groups of youngsters are being seen in Valletta, on boats going to Gozo and Comino, and in other popular areas such as Sliema, St Julian’s and Mdina.

See Ansa report (in Italian) here