Today's Digital Newspaper

The Gazette

Weather Block Here



Colorado adds new locations for gift card vaccination giveaways

Colorado added a batch of new locations where residents can get vaccinated and receive $100 Walmart gift cards this week, extending its latest vaccination push.

The new locations span the state and continue through Friday. Gift cards are available to every person who’s eligible to be vaccinated and hasn’t yet been. There are a finite number of cards, the state said in a press release, and they’ll be available as supplies last.

Gov. Jared Polis announced the card push last week, shortly after two previous incentives — $1 million giveaways and $50,000 scholarships — ended earlier this month. Thus far, more than 3,100 Walmart gift cards have been doled out in Colorado, a state spokeswoman said in an email.

“The distribution has varied by location, but we have seen an increase at all stops,” she said.

Polis has said all of the incentive programs are aimed at the wait-and-see crowd, and he’s acknowledged that the efforts won’t persuade those who are flatly opposed to inoculations. But that wait-and-see crowd is thinning out, he said last week, and those Coloradans who are actively resistant now make up a significant share of the state population that has yet to be inoculated.

The gift card program has been in place for just under a week, and much of the vaccination data from that time period is still incomplete, according to the state’s data dashboard. But generally, Colorado has averaged fewer than 10,000 doses delivered each day through July, the lowest mark of the pandemic yet and a sign of the difficulties of reaching the holdouts. 

The previous cash and scholarships incentives did not result in a spike in vaccinations. A week into those programs, Polis said they were not intended to drive a spike but rather to keep dose distribution at a level pace.

As of Tuesday evening, 3.34 million residents have received at least one dose. Just over 3 million are fully inoculated.

72cd0f98-ef2c-11eb-9d08-c788dfa7653a

View Original Article | Split View
Tags

PREV

PREVIOUS

Colorado voters spoke, but ranchers remain wary of wolf reintroduction

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save When Colorado voters approved the reintroduction of gray wolves in 2020, livestock owners were promised fair compensation for damages and deaths to their animals caused by wolves. But if Colorado mirrors the experiences of livestock owners in states like Idaho and Washington, ranchers around the […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

CALDARA | Reparations? How about opportunity?

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Crime is rampaging in Denver. Homicides are skyrocketing. Vagrants infest our streets. Our sidewalks are littered with human excrement and used needles. Forced out of business by city lockdowns, storefronts are boarded up and covered with graffiti. Inflation is stealing from working families. Colorado is […]