Less than 1 percent of Filipinos who have received the vaccine for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) experienced serious adverse events, a health official said Monday.

“Out of this 4.09 million na vaccinees, less than 1 percent have suspected adverse events that is serious. We have serious and non-serious adverse events, the serious is just .012, .012 percent experienced serious adverse events,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum partly in Filipino.

The National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee have not seen any evidence that the serious side events are directly caused by the Covid-19 vaccines, Vergeire said.

“The non-serious side events is just 1.10 percent of these 4.09 million individuals,” she said partly in Filipino.

Earlier, the committee advised the public about the common or non-serious adverse events following Covid-19 vaccination. These include pain at the vaccination site such as upper arm, headache, fever, increased blood pressure and muscle pains.

Meanwhile, serious adverse events include convulsions, tightening of the chest, swelling of the face and the throat, bleeding, and other life-threatening reactions which require immediate hospitalization.

Since the country began its vaccination rollout on the first day of March, a total of 4,097,425 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered as of May 22.

About 3,147,486 have received the first dose while 949,939 persons have completed the required two doses.