(INDIANAPOLIS) — Indy is turning to prize drawings to encourage people to get vaccinated.
The Marion County Health Department gave away a $250 Simon Malls gift card at a vaccination clinic last weekend at Arsenal Tech High School. It’ll hold more drawings for gift cards for Meijer and
Speedway, tickets to the zoo and Children’s Museum, and Pacers and Colts memorabilia,
including a signed Peyton Manning jersey.
Health director Virginia Caine says the hope of winning something is an incentive, but more than
that, the prizes are a way to get the attention of people who haven’t been focused on the vaccine,
and prompt them to do whatever research they need to assure themselves it’s worthwhile.
IU and Purdue previously announced drawings for a year’s tuition and other prizes to encourage
students to get vaccinated. And the state of Ohio has been conducting drawings for a million-dollar
prize.
The county has also launched an online ad campaign targeting people under 40, reminding them
that getting vaccinated is their passport back to normal, unmasked activities. About half of all
COVID-19 infections have been people under 40, and Caine says the more infections Delta variant
which originated in Great Britain has hit people in their 20s particularly hard. The Delta variant is
now the dominant strain in both the UK and Indiana, and Caine says the vaccination drive is a
race to limit its ability to spread further.
Caine has said she’ll lift Marion County’s remaining capacity limits when half the county’s
residents are vaccinated. The county’s now at 38.5%, about 100,000 people away from the
goal.
The county plans another mass vaccination clinic Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Warren Central
High School.
