CAMBRIDGE (WBZNewsRadio) - It was a full house at a Thursday evening Covid-19 Vaccine clinic hosted by the City of Cambridge. For rolling up your sleeve, Cambridge handed out $75 debit cards to those who live or work in the city.
“Getting vaccinated and receiving the most recent COVID-19 booster dose recommended for you by the CDC remains a critical step to help keep yourself, your family, and your community safe,” said Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and City Manager Yi-An Huang in a joint statement. “We want to thank our vaccination team and CambridgeSide for working to make this clinic possible before the end of the year. We hope providing a modest financial incentive will further increase Cambridge’s vaccination rates.”
Cambridge officials had urged those attending to pre-register or face potentially long lines. The turnout for the Thursday night event was better than expected with many people standing in the 'stand-by' line being told they most likely wouldn't receive a shot.
Most people told WBZ's Kim Tunnicliffe it was the $75 incentive ahead of the holidays that prompted them to wait in the line.
"I was thinking about calling my doctor about scheduling it, but then I saw this thing from the city saying 'we'll pay you for it' and I thought that's really great, I'll do that." One woman said.
"I've been wanting to get the booster for a while. I figure if I'm going to get money for it and you don't mind waiting in line, I thought why not." Another said.
"This reminds me a little bit of the early days of Covid vaccination, when we had lines like this and pace like this. It's really exciting to see the community come out and get vaccinated." Anna Kaplan, Director of Epidemiology at the Cambridge Public Health Department said.
WBZ's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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