$100 COVID Vaccine Incentive Proves Popular in Sherburne County

(KNSI) – The state of Minnesota just wrapped up its $100 Visa gift card COVID-19 vaccine incentive, and the program proved to be popular in some counties with the lowest vaccination rates in the state.

Gov. Tim Walz’s office said on Monday that the state received 79,810 requests for the gift cards, which were awarded to Minnesotans who got their first vaccine dose between July 30th and August 22nd.

“The $100 incentive program was a great success,” Walz said in a statement Monday. “I am so pleased more Minnesotans have received their vaccine and are on their way to protecting themselves, their families, and their communities from COVID-19. Everybody in our state benefited from this incentive program, regardless of when they got their shot. The best way to manage COVID-19 is by vaccinating more of our friends and neighbors. This program went a long way toward increasing statewide vaccination rates and building the community program we need against the virus.”

Walz credits the program for prompting an increase in COVID-19 vaccinations after a slowdown in vaccine administration during July. State and national health leaders have been urging vaccination as the highly transmissible delta variant contributes to rising COVID cases.

“The seven-day average for first doses administered was 2,675 one month ago. Today, Minnesota is averaging 4,955 first doses daily,” reads the office’s press release.

Walz’s office says the incentive program was most popular in Brown, Carlton, Sherburne, Mille Lacs and Chisago counties, measured by the number of applicants per capita. Each of those counties (except Carlton) is behind the statewide vaccination rate by between 5 and 21 percentage points.

The latest data from the Minnesota Department of Health shows that 70.9 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older have gotten at least one vaccine dose. In Sherburne County, that number is 55 percent. Though it’s almost 16 percentage points behind the state average, Sherburne doesn’t have the lowest vaccination rate in the St. Cloud area; Morrison County reports that only 50 percent of residents 16 and older are vaccinated, and Benton and Stearns counties’ current rates are both 54 percent. 61 percent of Wright County residents 16+ have received at least one dose so far.

Walz’s office adds that about 80 percent of incentive applicants were under the age of 50. When you examine the percentage of Minnesotans vaccinated against COVID-19 by age, those numbers decrease as you look at younger groups. While 89 percent of the state’s residents 65 and older are now fully vaccinated against COVID, that figure is 71 percent for Minnesotans ages 50-64, 56 percent among 18-to-49-year-olds, 50 percent for 16-to-17-year-olds and 39 percent among 12-to-15-year-olds.

After allocating $16.3 million from the state’s American Rescue Plan funding for the vaccine incentive program, Walz’s office says the Walz-Flanagan administration, the state legislature and other entities will work to launch new COVID vaccine incentive programs in the future.

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