24 October 2009 / TODAY'S ZAMAN , İSTANBUL
İstanbul Governor Muammer Güler announced on Friday that as part of efforts to stem the spread of swine flu in schools, all schools in the province would be given the day off on Friday, Oct. 30.
Students and educators were already scheduled to have the previous day, Oct. 29, off to mark Republic Day, and this change means a four-day weekend is in store.On Wednesday, Güler confirmed that 16 students from 10 schools had been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. The general İstanbul population has seen over 250 cases of the illness so far.