SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – New numbers obtained from the state show how New Mexicans have responded to the vaccine incentives. When the Vax 2 the Max sweepstakes were announced, there was a slight uptick in vaccinations, but the $100 cash bonuses offered last month really got people out.
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“Before the hundred dollar incentive, the number of people getting vaccinated, day by day was starting to decline, that hundred dollar incentive brought our numbers back up,” said David Morgan, a Spokesperson for the New Mexico Health Department.
But, most of them were already vaccinated before the campaign was announced just first. According to the State’s vaccine dashboard, nearly 30-percent of New Mexicans are still unvaccinated.
In the middle of June, when the state offered those $100 cash bonuses for full vaccinations, the number of one time Johnson and Johnson shots administered, quadrupled to more than two thousand a day. KRQE News 13 spoke to a woman who received that cash bonus, the day she got her Johnson and Johnson Vaccine. “I went and got my shot,” said Laurinda Savilla. “All you have to do is sign a paper that you live here in New Mexico, and then they give you a hundred dollars,” said Savilla.
The number of vaccinations is steadily declining, fewer than a thousand New Mexicans a day are getting shots lately. We asked the department of health if they’re planning to offer any more cash incentives to try and convince that remaining 28-percent. They say they’re considering it, but nothing is decided just yet.
According to the spreadsheet the Health Department sent us, a little more than 20-thousand New Mexicans got their second shot, or Johnson and Johnson shot over that four-day period with hundred dollar incentives. The state’s payout topped $2-million.