NYC vaccine campaign surges 40 percent amid mandates, new incentives
Sometimes it takes a carrot — and a stick!
The Big Apple’s vaccination campaign has surged 40 percent after Mayor Bill de Blasio offered $100 gift cards for shots and ordered city employees to get vaccinated or face weekly testing, a Post analysis of city data shows.
At least 79,931 New Yorkers got their first shots of the coronavirus vaccine over the most recent week, which ended Saturday, according to preliminary tallies from the city’s Health Department.
That includes the 15,440 people who lined up for their first shots in the five boroughs last Friday, which was the highest number for a single day since June 4.
All told, it’s a dramatic increase from the 57,273 people who got their shots over the first week of July, which was the low point for the city’s inoculation effort.
The dramatic increase comes after Mayor de Blasio extended his vaccine mandate to the entire city workforce and offered those getting their first shots $100 gift cards if they got their jabs at city-run vaccine sites.
However, the pace of vaccination remains far below the levels seen in the spring, when the shots first became widely available — when the weekly pace often exceeded 300,000 New Yorkers getting their first shots.
The data shows the uptick now stretches for at least two weeks, dating back to when Mayor de Blasio first ordered employees of the city’s public hospital system and Health Department’s community care clinics to get their shots or face weekly tests on July 20.
That week — which ran from July 18 through July 24 — 68,679 New Yorkers showed up for their first shots.
That was up 11 percent from the 61,932 first doses administered the week before.
Shots by the numbers:
- July 4 – July 10: 57,294
- July 11 – July 17: 61,932
- July 18 – July 24: 68,679
- July 25 – July 31: 79,931*
*Preliminary tallies
