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The number of cases recorded is usually lower on Sundays, partly because fewer tests are carried out on the weekend
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Rüdiger Wölk / imago images / Rüdiger Wölk
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Twitter removes post on vaccinations from Iran's spiritual leader Khamenei
09.55 a.m.:
The US online service Twitter has removed a post by Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which he described corona vaccines from the USA and Great Britain as "not trustworthy".
The Khameneis tweet violated the company's guidelines for handling false information about the corona pandemic and was therefore deleted, said a Twitter spokesman on Saturday.
Khamenei wrote on his English-language Twitter account that the import of corona vaccines from the United States and Great Britain was "prohibited" because they were "completely untrustworthy".
It was "not unlikely" that the two countries wanted to "poison other nations," he continued.
"Given our experience with HIV-contaminated blood donations, French vaccines are also not trustworthy."
In his last comment, Khamenei referred to a blood donation scandal in France in the 1980s, in the course of which blood donations contaminated with the HI virus were delivered to French and foreign clinics.
Khamenei's Twitter channel is managed from his office.
Quotes from his sermons are usually published there.
In Iran, Twitter is officially banned, although several government officials, including President Hassan Ruhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed Jawad Zarif, make extensive use of the online service.
In December, he announced tougher action against false information and misleading information about the corona pandemic.
Israel has already vaccinated 20 percent of its citizens against Corona
9:52 a.m.:
Three weeks after the start of the vaccination campaign in Israel, 20 percent of citizens have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Health Minister Juli Edelstein announced on Twitter on Sunday that around 1.8 million Israelis had received the first dose of vaccine.
In total, the small Mediterranean country has more than nine million inhabitants.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel PlusIcon: Spiegel Plus vaccination privileges in Israel: »The advantages should be an incentive« By Alexandra Rojkov
On Sunday, vaccination of the medical staff began with the second dose.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also received his second vaccination on Saturday evening.
The government wants to vaccinate all residents of the country who are older than 16 years by the end of March.
According to media reports, Israel has signed an agreement with the manufacturer Pfizer to make this possible.
In total, Israel should receive ten million doses of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine.
Israel will be the first country to leave the corona crisis behind, Netanyahu said on Thursday.
It should serve as a model country for the rapid vaccination of an entire state.
In return, vaccination data should be made available to the company.
Israel is currently in the third corona lockdown because the number of infections rose significantly again at the end of the year.
The Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that 5030 new cases had been reported within 24 hours.
For comparison: The German health authorities reported 16,946 new corona infections within one day on Sunday.
Germany has about nine times more inhabitants than Israel.
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ngo / Reuters / dpa / afp / sid