Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd right) attends a ceremony to mark the arrival of a plane of the international courier company DHL carrying the first batch of Pfizer coronavirus vaccines which lands at Ben Gurion International Airport near central Israeli city of Tel Aviv amid the COVID-19 pandemic on December 9, 2020. An initial shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer arrived in Israel on Wednesday morning, the first of about 8 million Pfizer vaccines that the country is expected to receive. A DHL cargo flight from Belgium's Brussels landed at the Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv, carrying a small number of vaccines for a pilot run of the logistic of transportation and refrigerated storage procedure, the Israeli health ministry said in a statement. Photo: Xinhua

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a COVID-19 vaccine jab on Saturday, kicking off a national rollout over the coming days.

Netanyahu, 71, and Israel's health minister were injected with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine live on TV at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.

"I asked to be vaccinated first, together with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, to serve as personal examples and encourage you to be vaccinated," Netanyahu told the television audience.

Each recipient must receive a booster shot in three weeks for optimal protection from the novel coronavirus.

Latest Israeli health ministry figures reported over 370,000 people had tested positive for the virus since the Jewish state, a country of around 9 million, confirmed its first case in February.

Just over 3,000 people have died.

The vaccine will be rolled out at 10 hospitals and vaccination centers around Israel for healthcare workers from Sunday, according to the health ministry.

During the course of the week, a ministry statement said, vaccinations will be extended to the general public, starting with those aged over 60.

Netanyahu spent Monday to Friday in self-isolation after coming into contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient, despite testing negative for the virus on Sunday and again on Monday. Ten days ago, he was at Israel's Ben Gurion airport to welcome a first batch of the vaccine. The shipment was the first of 8 million doses Israel has ordered from US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.