Concert in United States offers discounts of nearly a thousand dollars for people vaccinated against COVID-19

Eager to get their population vaccinated against COVID-19, U.S. officials are offering incentives ranging from free beer to million dollar lottery prizes, and now rock concert promoters have their own twist: huge discounts on tickets.

Fans of the bandas punk Teenage BottleRocket, MakeWar y Rutterkin can attend the June 26 concert on the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida (southeast), for a “discount” price of $ 18 if they can prove they are fully immunized.

For those who don’t have this proof, the price is $ 999.99.

Paul Williams of Leadfoot Productions in nearby Tampa Bay said that now that vaccines are available for all ages 12 and up and people are clamoring to attend live concerts again, he wants to give them an experience. safely.

“I also wanted it to be a vaccination campaign to convince the undecided,” Williams told the network. ABC News, ensuring that the public response has been “overwhelmingly positive”.

A total of 250 discounted tickets are on sale and, So far, no one has requested the option of nearly $ 1,000.

In a video posted to Facebook, Teenage BottleRocket singer / guitarist Ray Carlisle tells his fans: “We want to set a good example … we have been vaccinated. We would love to have you vaccinated as well. Come party with us. Safety comes first, the party afterwards ”.

The rapid vaccination campaign in the United States came to a screeching halt in mid-April, raising concern among public health officials.

The state of Northeast Ohio has announced that any resident who receives at least one dose of the vaccine will be eligible to win a million dollar lottery prize.

Other states, such as Colorado, Oregon, and Maryland, have copied the idea.

New York announced on Wednesday that any resident between the ages of 12 and 17 could earn a full scholarship to a state university if they had already been vaccinated.

The United States reached 33,237,543 confirmed cases of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on Friday and 593,881 deaths from Covid-19 disease, according to the independent count from Johns Hopkins University. This balance was 725 more dead than Thursday and 24,223 new infections.

California is the state most affected by the pandemic with 63,202 deaths, followed by New York (53,255), Texas (51,456), Florida (36,774), Pennsylvania (27,175), New Jersey (26,185) and Illinois (25,127). In terms of infections, California has 3,787,307, followed by Texas with 2,952,311, Florida is third with 2,320,818 and New York is fourth with 2,100,183.

The death toll -593,881- far exceeds the lower limit of initial White House estimates, which at best predicted between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from the pandemic. US President Joe Biden has predicted that more than 600,000 people in total in the country will die from the virus.

The United States surpassed 50% of the population on Friday with at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine, although in this calculation it does not differentiate between people who have traveled to other countries to receive the preparation. A total of 166.3 million people (50.1% of the population) received at least one dose of the vaccines, including 133.5 million (40.2%) are already fully inoculated, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With information from AFP and EFE

KEEP READING: