City Pays $25M In Incentives To Get NYers Vaccinated

NEW YORK CITY — A $100 incentive for New Yorkers who get the coronavirus vaccine has quietly helped push up shots alongside attention-grabbing shot mandates.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that 250,000 people so far have received the incentive for getting their first jab.

For the math-averse, that's $25 million going into New Yorkers' pockets to help drive up vaccinations in the fight against COVID-19.

"You know, around here we're used to big numbers — 250,000 is even a big number for New York City," de Blasio said.

But incentives aren't the only measure de Blasio pushed to fight the coronavirus. He said a strict vaccine mandate for public school staff — which helped achieve a 95 percent, and counting, vaccination rate — could be expanded to other city workers like the NYPD.

“We’re going to consider in the days ahead what else makes sense to do,” he said.

As recently as July, it appeared coronavirus vaccinations in New York City had plateaued. Health officials worried that would leave the city vulnerable to the highly contagious delta variant of coronavirus.

The concern prompted de Blasio to declare the "voluntary phase" of vaccinations over. He instituted increasing more stringent vaccine mandates for city workers and an indoor proof of vaccination rule for dining, working out and entertainment in the city called the "Key To NYC."

The three prongs — a $100 incentive, worker mandates, indoor vaccination rule — to the mayor's approach appear to have worked, despite some opposition and court challenges.

More than 11.5 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have gone into arms so far. De Blasio said the city's hospitalization rate has gone down to 0.88 patients per 100,000 people in the city.

He said that relative good news unfolded against the backdrop of the United States passing 700,000 deaths from COVID-19. Other cities and states should follow New York City's lead to fight the pandemic, he said.

“All roads lead to the same place: vaccination,” he said.

“As of today, 99 percent of the deaths in this country have been from among those who are unvaccinated,” he said.