About 500-thousand people in France reportedly have received coronavirus vaccines over the past three weeks, with 139 of them showing side effects. 

According to AFP, the French Health Ministry provided the update on the COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday. 

The ministry said five people have died after receiving vaccines, all of whom being seniors or very old with underlying diseases, adding that the correlation between the vaccines and deaths has not been confirmed. 

France started its COVID-19 vaccination program on December 27, using the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. 

In addition, Norway recently said 13 people had died in the country shortly after receiving the vaccine. The deceased were reportedly all very old and suffering from serious illnesses.