City Offering $100 Vaccine Incentive

City residents who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine are eligible for a $100 gift card if they get vaccinated by the Milwaukee Health Department.

The city has 1,000 gift cards loaded with $100 that it is distributing at its three vaccination sites, as well as its mobile clinics. The city’s standing clinics are at the Southside Health Center, 1639 S. 23rd. St., the Northwest Health Center, 7630 W. Mill Rd., and at a former state emissions testing facility in the Menomonee Valley at 2401 W. St. Paul Ave.

Anyone eligible for the vaccine, which includes residents five years old and older, can go to a city vaccination site and receive a gift card for getting vaccinated, while supplies last.

This incentive program is essentially the same as the previous one rolled out at the end of September. Only, then the age for eligibility began at 12 years old.

Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson said the last time the city rolled out gift cards as a vaccine incentive the supply lasted approximately four days. “So probably four days again,” she said.

In August 2021, the state, through its Department of Health Services (DHS), rolled out a vaccine incentive program with $100 Visa gift cards for anyone receiving a first dose. In less than two weeks, 65,000 state residents had received a shot and a gift card.

In a statement, Commissioner Johnson said, “Vaccination remains our strongest tool against the COVID-19 virus.”

Approximately 56% of city residents aged five or older are completely vaccinated. Countywide, the fully vaccinated rate is 62%, and statewide the rate is 59%.

“It is heartbreaking to continue to see people lose their lives to COVID-19 when they could have been protected by the vaccine,” Johnson said. “We hope that this incentive will help those who are on the fence make the life-saving decision to get vaccinated.”

The latest incentive program is funded through a grant and revenue from DHS for the testing program administered by the city, Johnson said.

Now that the surge caused by the Omicron variant is waning, the health department has more staff it can assign to vaccination and the incentive program. Between the funding and the staffing availability, Johnson noted, “we just thought the timing was good to offer an incentive.”