Canada on Saturday pushed back the expiration date on nearly 50,000 doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine by one month. Health authorities had previously approved a six-month shelf life for AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine.
However, in a statement, the authorities said that they received information from AstraZeneca that included product stability and mathematical modelling data that demonstrated that the quality, safety and efficacy of the two lots would be maintained for an extra month, for a total of up to seven months.
Just over 55% of Canada's 38 million people have received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and 5% have received two doses. In addition to AstraZeneca, vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are approved for use in Canada.