New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced 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.
