NYC Offers New Way To Get $100 COVID Vaccine Incentive

NEW YORK CITY — New Yorkers who get their first dose of coronavirus vaccine have more places to collect some cold, hard cash.

The city will give $100 to people who get their initial shots at SOMOS Community Care locations, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week.

The $100 incentive was previously only available to New Yorkers who received their shots at city-run vaccinations sites.

"This is a new way of using the $100 incentive to reach everyday New Yorkers," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. "When folks go into a SOMOS facility to get vaccinated, to get the truth, to be encouraged to get vaccinated, they can get everyone who comes to get vaccinated can get that."

SOMOS is a network of doctors who largely serve low-income communities of color such as Washington Heights and the south Bronx.

Doctors within the network have administered more than 1.5 million doses to New Yorkers, including at a high-profile vaccination site at Yankee Stadium, officials said.

About 82 percent of the city's Hispanic/Latino population have received at least one shot of the COVID vaccine — compared to 88 percent of all NYC adults.

Henry R. Munoz III, who co-founded SOMOS, said the partnership with the city will help ensure vaccine equity.

“We are building a new model of preventative care for the communities that are overlooked by traditional healthcare systems – low-income, immigrant communities of color – and bringing this vaccine incentive directly into the communities SOMOS serves is critical to that goal," he said in a statement. "As we expand our partnership with New York City to include a push to vaccinate children, this incentive is another tool for our pediatricians to start conversations and win over hesitant parents."

New Yorkers can find a vaccination site here or a SOMOS location here.

Patch writer Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.