The new incentive will only be granted at immunization centers administered by the City, and will be in effect until December 31.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) revealed very worrying data for New York City on Monday , that at least 93% of new COVID-19 infections are from Omicron, a variant that is spreading very fast. And to try to stop these infections, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this Tuesday a new incentive of $ 100 for those who get the third dose of the vaccine .
“ That incentive comes just in time for the holidays , as many are now shopping for their families and it will be great to have that extra money. And that is why I announce that from today, everyone who gets the third vaccination will receive a hundred dollars of incentive, from now until the end of the year ”, announced the Mayor .
The new $ 100 plan, which was already a success when it was used to promote vaccination in general, will be in effect until December 31, and will only be carried out in vaccination centers administered by the City and in community clinics. of SOMOS.
“Although we already have 6.6 million New Yorkers have been vaccinated with at least one dose, 600,000 of them under 18 years of age, the key now is the booster vaccine and that is what we have to focus on,” De Blasio insisted, adding that there is every There is “more evidence of how the boost raises levels of antibodies crucial to fighting Omicron .”
“ The next two weeks will be very tough , because of how fast this variant is spreading, and we have to do everything we can to deal with this. But it is a temporary reality, since although now we are seeing a rapid rise in Ómicron, then it will fall again as is happening in other parts of the world, ”he emphasized.
To insist that one of the main characteristics of this variant is that it is very contagious and is causing many cases in an accelerated way, the Mayor said that for them you must act even faster than infections and that is only done with the immunization of the population.
” Vaccination is the only way to protect ourselves against Ómicron and continue our recovery, and that is the focus of all our strategies,” emphasized De Blasio
Meanwhile, the City’s Health Commissioner , Dr. Dave Chokshi , repeated that an “extra injection of Moderna or Pfizer, considerably increases protection in a double way, against infection and against serious diseases that arise related to Ómicron ”.
The City’s ‘top doctor’ used specific figures to demonstrate this reality: “Pfizer showed preliminary data of a 25 percent increase in protective antibodies with the third dose, and Moderna showed similar data with a 37 percent increase in increase ”.
Chokshi reported that 1.7 million booster doses have been given in New York City so far.
There will be no more closings
And when answering one of the questions that is most on the minds of New Yorkers, if the City is contemplating new closure orders as occurred in the spring of 2020 during the worst of the pandemic, this was the Mayor’s response: “There will be no closures, we have already gone through them and they were devastating and we will not do them again ”.
But … how will they be avoided if the contagion situation worsens? De Blasio insisted that the future is in the hands of New Yorkers who should do their part and go get vaccinated and those who have already done so, make sure they get the third booster injection.
“We New York City are ready, but we need you to do your part. If you have not yet been vaccinated, it is time, if you have not received the reinforcement, it is time, if you have not vaccinated your child, it is time “, emphasized the president.
The authorities’ insistence on vaccination comes at a time when 9,297 new cases of COVID-19 and 200 new hospitalizations are registered in the Big Apple.