Nevada will soon become the latest state to offer an incentive programme aimed at encouraging more people to get a Covid-19 shot amid a slowdown in vaccination rates across the US.
Steve Sisolak, the state’s governor, did not detail what incentives the state will offer but said on Tuesday he expects to announce more information on the programme in the next week.
States have offered cash, lottery tickets, scholarships and even guns in hopes of getting more shots into the arms of their residents.
The rate of vaccinations has slowed to levels last seen in late January, raising the odds that the rollout will miss Joe Biden’s goal of having at least 70 per cent of adults inoculated with one or more doses by July 4.
The US has administered about 1m doses per day over the last seven days, down from a peak of 3.4m in mid-April, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 164m Americans over the age of 18, or 63.8 per cent of the adult population, have received at least one shot as of Tuesday. About 53 per cent of adults are fully vaccinated.
Nevada ranks 32nd out of 50 states with 58.3 per cent of its adult population vaccinated with at least one dose.
West Virginia, which ranks 45th with 49.8 per cent of adult residents vaccinated, has sought to boost inoculation levels through a cash lottery and other prizes including custom rifles, pickup trucks and hunting and fishing licences. Governor Jim Justice said 70,000 West Virginians have registered for the giveaways.
Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser, said on Tuesday the US needs to continue vaccinating more people to keep the Delta variant from becoming the dominant form of coronavirus in the country.
The Delta variant, which was first discovered in India and has made up a majority of new infections in the UK, accounts for about 6 per cent of US cases, according to Fauci.