Canada’s health authorities announced on Saturday that they have extended the expiry dates of nearly 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine by one month to ensure that provinces and territories are able to use their existing inventory.

The approval to extend the shelf life of two lots of vaccines from May 31 to July 1 was supported by “scientific evidence,” Health Canada said in a statement.

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This change will provide Canadians the access to much-needed doses of the vaccine, the agency said. A spokesperson for Health Canada said that as of May 22, there were about 49,000 doses of AstraZeneca in the country with an expiration date of May 31. Most of them were in Ontario province, CBC reported.

Previously, the Canadian health authorities had approved a six-month shelf life for AstraZeneca’s COVID 19 vaccine. But according to the information they received from the company on May 27 including “product stability and mathematical modelling data” showed that the two slots could be safely and effectively used for an extra month.

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This month several provinces announced their decision to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people receiving their first shot, due to rare instances of blood clots.

However, Canadians who had received a first AstraZeneca dose were able to get their scheduled second dose.

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Over 55% of Canada’s 38 million have received the first dose of the COVID 19 vaccine, and 5% have been fully vaccinated. Besides AstraZeneca, vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are approved for use in Canada.