A lottery was launched in Slovakia on Sunday to support the COVID-19 vaccination. The form of support was approved by parliament at the beginning of July. Beginning Sunday evening, Slovaks can start registering for the lottery – the first drawing will take place on August 15. The highest winning is 100,000 euros.
The winners will be drawn every week until the end of October. The Slovak tax office should thus spend about ten million euros on prizes. The competition is open to people with a permanent residence in Slovakia who have completed vaccinations against COVID-19.
However, the start of registration was postponed by several hours on Sunday. It was originally supposed to be launched at noon, but the ministry of finance, which organizes the competition, ultimately announced that it would not launch the registration page until evening.
According to the daily Pravda, the conditions for winning the main prize provoked great debate. To win, the person drawn would have to answer the moderator’s question live. In this way, the organizers want to guarantee that interest in the lottery will not decrease over time.
Minister of Finance and former Prime Minister Igor Matovič is a big supporter of the lottery. He also pushed for parliament to approve the lottery. According to him, this is a very good investment, because the cost of the lottery represents only a fraction of the cost of treating severe cases of COVID-19 infection. However, experts and economists have doubts as to whether the lottery will lead to greater motivation to get vaccinated.
According to the data portal Our World in Data in Slovakia, almost two million people are fully vaccination against COVID-19, which is 36 percent of the population. According to the portal, the amount is 45 percent of the population in the Czech Republic.
But Slovakia is not the only country trying to motivate its citizens to be vaccinated through rewards. The British government has announced that it is negotiating with large companies operating in taxi services and food delivery to provide a discount to young vaccinated people. The program is focused mainly on them because the vaccination rate is lower among the young.
According to the BBC, 85 million doses of COVID-19 have been given in Britain – 89 percent of British adults have received at least one dose, compared to 68 percent in the 18-29 age group. About 72 percent of Britain’s adults have completed the vaccination process.
Title image: A Holocaust survivor receives a injection of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the COVID-19 disease at a vaccination center in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021.
