SAN ANTONIO — Beginning Friday, San Antonio Metro Health is offering a $100 H-E-B gift card to people getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
The gift cards will be given to individuals who receive either the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at any Metro Health vaccine site while supplies last, according to a press release. People who are fullly vaccinated before September 24 will not be eligible for the gift card. It does not appear the gift cards will be given for people getting the recently-approved third vaccine booster shot.
Metro Health is asking people to bring their vaccine card. They will also be required to fill out a form including name, address, date they received their vaccine and the type of COVID-19 vaccine administered. The gift cards cannot be used to purchased alcohol or tobacco products.
“We hope that individuals who are still not vaccinated will take advantage of this incentive because it will take all of us getting vaccinated to end this pandemic,” Metro Health Director Claude A. Jacob said. “Our COVID vaccines can help prevent someone from getting and spreading the virus to others, and they can prevent serious illness or hospitalization.”
San Antonio resident Rudy Contreras stopped by the Alamodome for his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Contreras said he would have gotten the second dose regardless if there was a monetary incentive.
“That was just a bonus, the main reason was for my kids and my family," Contreras said.
The pandemic has hit the Contreras family hard.
“One of my brothers passed away from it. Benito Contreras, he passed on July 16," he said.
Chad Dullnig was surprised how quick the vaccination process was for his second dose at the Alamodome.
He was in and out within 10 minutes.
“My dad’s had cancer and everything so trying to stay safe around him and all of our family," Dullnig said.
Earlier this month, city council approved the purchase of 10,000 gift cards from H-E-B for $1 million to use federal monies from the Immunizations COVID-19 Round 4 Grant Fund.
Metro Health also announced it is reopening mass vaccination clinics at Wonderland of the Americas Mall and the Alamodome.
Click here for a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the incentive.