Eighty-eight people have died after taking flu shot as of midnight Tuesday, but investigations showed few causal links between vaccines and deaths, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Wednesday.

KCDA said it has completed probes into 83 out of the 88 deaths, but could not recognize any causality in them, and is investigating the other five cases.

Among the deceased, 73 people, or 83 percent, were older than 70, and their deaths concentrated on the third week of October when vaccination began for the elders. The National Forensic Service (NFS) has also conducted autopsies on 44 out of the 88 as of Monday.

The investigated cases did not show signs of anaphylaxis, acute symptoms occurring after influenza vaccination. NFS considered the probability of error to be low, as it could not find adverse events in deaths after checking the same medical institutions, dates, and lot numbers.

According to a study conducted by a research team of Chungnam National University College of Medicine, vaccines caused anaphylaxis in 13 patients from 2001 to 2016 in Korea, but everyone completely recovered from the symptom without having aftereffects. The agency also said that 1,736 people reported having adverse events after receiving the flu shot as of midnight Tuesday.

KCDA reported that about 17.6 million people received influenza vaccine and 11.9 million of them took flu shot free of charge under the National Immunization Program, while the other 5.7 million paid for it.

KCDA also found that the cumulative vaccination rate for children under 12 was 73.3 percent on Nov. 3, the highest among the age groups included in the national flu vaccination program. During the period, 65.2 percent of people over 65 and 36.8 percent of pregnant women received the vaccine.

“The epidemic level is lower compared to previous years, and the flu season appears to have been delayed,” KDCA Commissioner Jung Eun-kyeong said. “Do not rush too much but get the shots by all means.”