NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — New York City will soon offer a monetary incentive to encourage hesitant residents to get vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
New Yorkers who get their first COVID-19 vaccine dose at a city-run site starting Friday, July 30 will receive $100, de Blasio said at a news briefing Wednesday morning.
The incentive, the mayor explained, will be the city's way of saying "thank you" to New Yorkers who help boost herd immunity by getting the shot.
"We will say, 'We’re really glad you got vaccinated for yourself, for your family, for your community,'” he said. “'And here’s a hundred dollars to thank you for doing the right thing, and to encourage people.'”
As of Wednesday, the city had administered more than 9.9 million doses of the vaccine. The health department's goal, however, is to reach more New Yorkers, de Blasio said.
“We’re on the verge of 10 million, and the only way we’re going to keep this recovery going is for more and more people to get vaccinated,” he said. “I know there’s hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers ready to get vaccinated right now. Maybe they just need to focus a little more, and I’m sure they’re feeling urgency at this moment given what we see happening around us.”
“Now, we’ve talked the last few days about mandates and there’s no question in my mind, mandates are a crucial part of the solution, and we’ll keep working on those," he added. “But we also still believe in incentives. Incentives help immensely. Both go well together, in fact."
The mayor's incentive announcement came days after he said municipal workers would be required to get vaccinated or get tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.
Public hospital and health clinic employees will also be subject to the new mandate.