Cash, cows, luxury apartments: countries offer incentives to get vaccinated

While many countries have acquired sufficient Covid-19 vaccines to roll out nationally, they now face the challenge of hesitancy as people are not willing to take the jab.

CAPE TOWN, June 18 (ANA) – While many countries have acquired sufficient Covid-19 vaccines to roll out nationally, they now face the challenge of hesitancy as people are not willing to take the jab.

The goal is herd immunity where enough residents are protected against the virus, however, for various reasons including distrust in the government and misinformation online has led to hesitancy in taking the vaccine.

This meant officials needed to get creative with some countries offering cash prizes, free beer, food parcels; and according to South China Morning Post (SCMP), a 42m² luxury apartment worth US$1.4 million situated at the Grand Central project in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong.

Hong Kong officials turned to businesses to help motivate hesitant residents to get the vaccine in their bid to reach their target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population.

“Vaccination is an important step in our fight against the pandemic, and to protect ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and colleagues,” Daryl Ng, director of Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation Limited, said in a statement on the Sino Group property company’s website.

“We hope the city’s total vaccination rate can be increased,” he said.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, elderly recipients of the vaccine in the town of Cipanas are being rewarded with free live chickens as local authorities aim to immunise 60,000 residents by the end of July.

Al Jazeera reported that in the Philippines, residents are afraid of getting vaccinated after seeing reports of people in other countries fainting and getting heart attacks.

In their bid to boost their campaign, officials have resorted to raffles with prizes that include sacks of rice, groceries, and in San Luis, the municipal government will raffle a cow every month.

According to The World, a US-Based radio broadcaster, Romania has offered visits to the legendary home of Dracula and Serbia is offering cash for shots.

“I think incentives within reason are a good approach. I think they can make good sense,” said Jeffrey Lazarus, a professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

Lazarus added that gifts can be powerful and that a survey in the US showed that paying people $100 for getting vaccinated could be great for some groups.

– African News Agency (ANA); Edited by Naomi Mackay