Health Canada extends expiry date for AstraZeneca shots

Doses set to expire on Monday can now be used until July 1, Health Canada says

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Health Canada is extending the expiry date for AstraZeneca doses with a current best-before date of May 31.

Both the company and the federal health regulator say the doses will still be safe and can be used before July 1.

The move comes as Ontario seeks to use up remaining AZ doses for second shots.

The province had suspended the use of AZ for first doses on May 11, citing concerns over blood clotting.

At that point the province had roughly 56,000 doses that were set to expire at the end of May and end of June.

After consultations with Health Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the Ford government announced remaining AZ shots would be set aside for second doses.

People who had received their first dose between March 10 and 19 were allowed to begin booking their second shot as of May 24.

That put the second dose closer to the 10-week mark than the preferred 12-week interval, but health officials said they would offer the dose to those who accepted the change.

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The leftover doses nearing expiry had to be recalled from pharmacies across Ontario and redistributed to locations that had been part of the original pilot program in Windsor, Kingston and Toronto.

As of Friday, more than 43,000 doses had been distributed with another 13,000 undergoing quality control testing.

Not every pharmacy returning doses provided needed data on temperature controls, forcing provincial officials to hire an outside firm to evaluate remaining doses.

Roughly 200 doses were discarded due to quality concerns.

In addition to the 56,000 leftover doses, the federal government delivered an additional 254,500 doses during the week of May 17.

More than 900,000 people in Ontario received a first dose of AZ, there are no scheduled deliveries of further doses at this point and health officials continue to examine the possibility of offering an alternative vaccine such as Pfizer or Moderna for second doses.