With vaccination rates down, officials try new approach

Officials are turning to community partnerships and other means of personal engagement to drive up the lagging COVID-19 vaccination rate.

Vaccine lotteries and other incentives designed to encourage COVID-19 vaccination after the rate steeply declined didn't consistently raise numbers as many public health officials had hoped. Now, officials are turning to community partnerships and other means of engagement to drive vaccinations -- and the personal approach appears promising. Vaccinations peaked at over 4 million per day in early April before dropping down to an average of about 429,000 per day by early July. Despite at least 30 states and territories implementing vaccine incentives such as cash lotteries, free food and free entrance to local attractions, the weekly moving average still hovers close to 470,000. Experts caution not to say that vaccine incentives didn’t work. States such as Ohio and Missouri saw a temporary but meaningful bump in vaccinations in the week after the lotteries were announced.