‘Vouchers for vaccines’: UK offers discounts on shopping, pizza to increase youth vaccinations against Covid-19

Companies like Uber, Bolt, Deliveroo and Pizza Pilgrims are among the brands that are offering discounts under the government’s new scheme.

In a bid to encourage young people to get inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine, several incentives such as discounts on shopping, pizza and Uber reminders are being offered in the United Kingdom. The “vouchers for vaccines” scheme, introduced to increase vaccinations among the young people, is being backed up by restaurants, food delivery services and ride-hailing applications in the country, several news reports showed.

As of Saturday (July 31), 84,938,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the UK. In picture - People waiting to receive a dose of the vaccine in London.(Reuters)

The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Sunday announced the programme targeted to woo people under the age of 30 years as the country rushes to immunise as many people against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) before the winter sets in, news agency PTI reported. The details of how the scheme would work are still being finalised, however, people can submit a photograph (“selfie”) of themselves at a vaccine centre as a proof to qualify for the sops, PTI further reported, citing UK media.

Companies like Uber, Bolt, Deliveroo and Pizza Pilgrims are among the brands that are offering discounts under the government’s new scheme. The DHSC confirmed that the companies involved in the scheme will not ask or record any of the health data for the incentives.

While over 90% of the adult population in the UK have been administered with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the coverage rate for people in the 18 to 30 age group is nearly 60%, the government’s data showed.

The announcement came even as estimates by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that unvaccinated people contributed about 60% of all hospital admissions. Data from the PHE and Cambridge University showed that close to 60,000 deaths, 22 million Covid-19 infections and 52,600 cases of hospital admissions were prevented by the vaccines up to July 23, the PTI report showed.

Meanwhile, the UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid and the minister for Covid-19 vaccine deployment Nadhim Zahawi urged more people to get vaccinated. Javid asked beneficiaries to “take advantage of the discounts” and also thanked the businesses involved with the government for “stepping up.” “Please get your jabs as soon as you can and grab a bargain,” PTI quoted Zahawi as saying.

As of Saturday (July 31), 84,938,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the UK that includes 46,811,298 first doses and 38,126,702 second doses, according to the DHSC’s latest update. “Almost 85,000,000 vaccine doses U.K. Come on, let's do this. Get protected and protect your family & community,” Zahawi tweeted earlier on Saturday.