New York City offers $100 to residents who get COVID-19 booster
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday that residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot by year-end will get $100.
Individuals who get their second or third COVID-19 booster jabs at a city-run site or at one of its Somos care partner clinics before Dec. 31 are eligible. "This is the moment. Get your booster and protect your family and city," the mayor's office said in a tweet.
In July, New York City also started paying $100 to anyone who got their first shot at a city-run site. The funds were doled out via prepaid debit cards, distributed by mail or email.
The city is rolling out the incentive as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads across the U.S. Nearly three-quarters of all new infections stem from Omicron, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In New York City, the percentage of people who have tested positive reached nearly 8% for the week ending December 17— more than double the seven-day average from a week earlier, according to city data.
Over the last seven days, an average of nearly 9,300 new COVID-19 cases were reported in New York City, de Blasio said in a press conference in which he announced the financial incentive for vaccine boosters. "That will continue to rise in the next few weeks," he said.
De Blasio's office is billing the program as a way for New Yorkers to boost both their immune systems and their wallets.
Other cities have used incentives to encourage families to get inoculated against COVID-19. In November, Chicago health officials were offering families $100 gift cards for children 5 to 11 to get vaccinated at city health events or clinics. San Antonio, Texas, was also giving parents and guardians $100 gift cards to H-E-B grocery stores when their littlest family members got jabbed.