As coronavirus vaccination numbers continue to dip, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week the state continues to explore incentives — including a possible lottery — to encourage holdouts to get their COVID-19 shots.
“Lots of other incentives (are) coming including potentially a vaccine lottery, so that people can actually win money,” Pritzker said during an unrelated event in Rockford.
The governor offered no further details on how a lottery would work or when it might start. Ohio rolled out a vaccine lottery last month and officials said it led to an increase in vaccinations.
Illinois has offered tickets to Six Flags Great America and, in a bill passed at the end of the legislative session this weekend, opened the door for bars and restaurants to offer a free drink to those who have been vaccinated. The state legislature also authorized a lottery in the budget implementation bill that was passed this week.
“This pandemic isn’t over and there are many, many people who have not been vaccinated yet,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “I talked a little bit about the fact that more than two-thirds of people in Illinois have been vaccinated, but that leaves a third and we are not at herd immunity, where we need to get to. So we’re doing everything at the state level to try to incentivize people to go get vaccinated.”
Pritzker’s comments come as the number of people getting vaccinated has fallen off steadily. The most recent seven-day average for vaccinations was 41,234, Illinois public health officials said Wednesday. Earlier in the vaccination effort the daily average regularly topped 100,000.
A total of 11,338,305 vaccines have been administered in the state since the effort began, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 67% of Illinois adults have received at least one vaccine dose. Nearly 51% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Several states have tried lotteries to incentivize vaccinations. In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced a vaccine lottery on May 12, offering a weekly $1 million prize and full-ride college scholarships. The money was to be paid out of federal coronavirus relief funds.
More than 2.7 million adults signed up for the $1 million prize and more than 104,000 children ages 12 to 17 entered the drawing for the college scholarship, which includes tuition, room and board, and books.
The concept seemed to work, at least initially. The number of people in Ohio age 16 and older who received their initial COVID-19 vaccine jumped 33% in the week after the state announced its million-dollar incentive lottery, according to an Associated Press analysis.
But the same review also found that vaccination rates are still well below figures from earlier in April and March.
The Associated Press contributed
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