Both Covishield and Covaxin vaccines have 6-months shelf life: Health ministry

NEW DELHI: The Union health ministry has said that both the Covid-19 vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — being administered now in India have a shelf life of six months from the date of production, but, as reported earlier by TOI, each vial must be used or discarded within four hours of being opened.
The Centre had already procured more than 16 million doses of the two vaccines. Arundathi Chandrashekar, a mission director under the National Health Mission (NHM), said, “The expiry dates of these vaccines appear to be in line with the general shelf life for vaccines that we use under the universal immunisation programme (UIP).” This, another official said, gives the government enough time to plan and procure doses.