Ukraine Closes Schools Nationwide For Fear of Swine Flu

(lubavitch.com) In a drastic measure adopted to combat the swine flu virus, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko ordered a three-week closure of Ukraine's schools.

"From today, all the school establishments in Ukraine -- be they private or public -- will be put on three weeks of holiday," she told her cabinet in comments carried on Ukrainian television last Friday.

Rabbi Shmuel Kaminzki, Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk, told lubavitch.com that in compliance with these orders, beginning this week, “all of the Ohr Avner Chabad schools in Ukraine have been closed.”

With 35 Ohr Avner schools and some 50 kindergartens in the networks, there are about 1000 children in the Chabad school network.

The measure, which also includes a ban on public gatherings, comes after 30 people have died of unexplained causes in The Ternopil region in Western Ukraine.