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CLEVELAND (WJW)— Dozens of deaths have been reported to the federal government among people who received COVID-19 vaccines in Ohio, but authorities said there is no evidence vaccination contributed to the deaths.

Sixty-three deaths were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) through March 5 among people who received COVID-19 vaccines in the state.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the reports do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death, and COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.

“A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records revealed no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths,” according to the CDC website.

Anyone, including the public, health care providers and vaccine manufacturers, can report adverse effects to VAERS, even if it is not clear the vaccine caused the problem.

Other effects reported to the database in Ohio include: chills (164), dizziness (111), difficulty breathing (77), fatigue (153), headache (191), nausea (135), fever (171) and hundreds of reports of pain near the injection site.

“VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine,” according to the VAERS program website.

VAERS is co-managed by the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires vaccination providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, and reports to not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death.

The CDC said it follows up on the reports to gather additional information on whether the death was related to the vaccine, and, “To date, VAERS has not detected patterns in cause of death that would indicate a safety problem with COVID-19 vaccines.”

According to the CDC, more than 92 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the U.S. from Dec. 14 through March 8 and in that period VAERS received 1,637 reports of deaths among people who received a vaccine, totaling .0018 percent.