The Department of Health (DOH) said that the death of three children who were vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was not because of the vaccines, based on the initial result of investigation.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that “case investigation and causality assessment” is still being conducted.

“Base sa initial reports natin, itong tatlong katao na nagkaroon ng bad outcome na ito or namatay (Based on our initial reports, these three people who had this bad outcome or died) after receiving their vaccines---died of other diseases,” said Vergeire on Friday, Dec. 10.

“One died because of non-COVID-19 pneumonia, another died because of dengue, and another died because of tuberculosis,” she said.

“But again, I would like to repeat and reiterate---hindi pa po tapos ang causality assessment na isinasagawa ngayon ng ating mga eksperto from our regional adverse event following immunization committee (the causality assessment being conducted by our experts from our regional adverse event following immunization committee is not done yet),” she furthered.

The death of the three children was stated in the Food and Drug Administration's reports of suspected adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccines released last Nov. 28.

“Reports of fatal events does not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused the events. Underlying conditions or pre-existing medical conditions causing fatal events are usually coincidental on the use of the vaccine,” the FDA noted.

“Most of these events occurred in persons with multiple existing comorbidities. These include cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and infections including pneumonia,” it added.