Columbus, Ohio expected to offer residents $100 to get vaccinated

Courtesy of the New York Daily News
By Jami Ganz
June 12, 2021

Residents of Columbus, Ohio will soon have a hundred new reasons to get vaccinated.

The Columbus City Council is set to vote Monday on legislation offering $100 as an incentive to get vaccinated against coronavirus, though the jab must be received after Monday, The Columbus Dispatch reported Friday.

Though there are no income eligibility restrictions, only 2,750 people can get the $100 — $50 for each of the two doses administered for Pfizer or Moderna’s jab — as there is only $275,000 is available to dispense, according to the outlet.

For those who take part in the program and get Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot, they’ll receive $100 at once, Council President Pro-Tem Elizabeth Brown told the newspaper.

Administered by the Columbus Urban League, residents will be able to register on a website for the program once the legislation is given the green light, Brown told the outlet.

Just 43% of the city’s residents were vaccinated by last Monday, said Brown, who noted the council is “focused on this as a public health matter, not as a reward for doing the right thing.”

Some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods’ vaccination rates are as low as 25%, Brown told The Columbus Dispatch, noting health care access might be a factor.

This $100-effort is an extension of the city’s Right to Recover program, which in October encompassed the council’s approval of $1.21 million for low-wage workers needing time off to recover from the virus, said Brown. That money came was from the federal CARES Act, according to the outlet

This isn’t the only incentive offered to Ohioans as far as getting vaccinated.

Roughly 3.3 million adults and 143,600 minors entered The Buckeye State’s drawing to win $1 million for getting jabbed, according to the outlet.