University of Georgia offers chance at $1,000 to students, staff who get COVID vaccine
Students, staff and faculty at the University of Georgia could win a $1,000 prize for getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
The university on Wednesday said it started taking entries for a drawing for the cash prizes to any current student or employee who is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. It comes as many schools across the country are offering similar incentives to increase vaccination rates and curb the spread of the virus on their campuses.
The University of Georgia says it will give out 100 of the $1,000 prizes. The first 50 names will be drawn Sept. 15, and an additional 25 names will be drawn on Sept. 30 and Oct. 15.
Participants must already be fully vaccinated — meaning they’ve either received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — to enter their name in the drawing.
Those who become fully vaccinated in the coming weeks can enter their names to win before the final drawing.
Winners will be required to “validate the dates and locations of their vaccinations before receiving their prize.”
The university has also been offering other incentives for vaccination.
On Aug. 11, it started offering a T-shirt and $20 gift card to anyone who got vaccinated through the University Health Center. Those who got vaccinated could also enter their name in a drawing for a $100 gift card. The school announced the new $1,000 drawings last week.
“There’s really not a reason to not get vaccinated,” Madeline Coward, a junior at the University of Georgia said, according to a news release from the school. “You’re just helping others and yourself by being protected, and it’s really easy, simple and painless. It was super easy, and the staff are all polite and super friendly.”
The university said that participation in its vaccination program has more than doubled in recent weeks and that nearly 1,500 people have been vaccinated at the University Health Center and walk-up clinics.
“About two-thirds of those appointments have been booked since UGA announced new incentives, including the opportunity to win a cash prize of $1,000,” the school said.
The increase also comes after students returned to campus last month for the start of the fall semester and as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted formal approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine last week.
It also comes as the U.S. has seen an increase in average daily COVID-19 vaccinations since mid-July.
“In mid-July, we were averaging 500,000 vaccinations per day. Today, we’re averaging 900,000,” the White House COVID-19 Response Team tweeted Tuesday. “That’s an 80% increase in the number of shots we’re getting into arms each day.”
Hundreds of schools and some state or local government across the U.S. have been offering incentives for vaccination similar to those at the University of Georgia in a push to increase the country’s vaccination rate.
Some schools have also mandated the vaccine or imposed fees or testing requirements for those who don’t get vaccinated. By an NPR count, about 100 colleges issued a vaccine mandate following Pfizer’s FDA approval.
