London | The first two Qantas planes carrying some of Britain’s surplus Pfizer jabs to Australia left London late on Saturday (AEST), as the 4 million jab-swap got under way barely more than a fortnight after the deal was conceived.

The deal – which will ship nearly expired jabs to Australia to accelerate the rollout Down Under, with Canberra returning the equivalent number in the northern winter once Britain’s booster campaign gets under way – was first mooted only on August 16.