To stimulate the vaccination process against COVID-19, the Polish government created a lottery with prizes up to R $ 1.45 million (1 million zlotz in local currency or 223 thousand euros) in cash and rewards for regions with the highest rates of immunization.
The lottery draws, which will be carried out by the state-owned betting company Totalizator Sportowy, will distribute approximately 31 million euros (R $ 202 million), electric motorcycles and hybrid cars.
As of the month of July, one out of every two thousand immunized people will randomly earn 112 euros (R $ 730). Each month, the government will promote two draws of 11,200 euros (R $ 73,000) and a hybrid car.
Lottery will cover vaccinated and those who will be immunized soon
According to R7, this new lottery will involve those who have already been immunized and who will be soon. In addition, there are plans to distribute two prizes of around 223 thousand euros (R $ 1.45 million).
The first 500 districts that reach the rate of 75% of vaccinated residents will be entitled to 22,300 euros (R $ 145 thousand), while the cities with the highest rate of vaccination coverage in each region will be awarded 223 thousand euros (R $ 1.5 thousand). million). The municipality that vaccinates more proportionately in the country will receive 446,000 (R $ 3 million).
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the PiS (government party), declared that “we must act by encouraging and persuading” the Poles so that the majority of the population is vaccinated voluntarily. But Dr. Andrzej Horban, the prime minister’s personal adviser during the pandemic, was in favor of mandatory vaccination in the country.
So far only half of the adults have registered and approximately a third have been vaccinated. The Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski, said that the national immunization plan tends to reach a “tipping point” in June.
In other words, “vaccines will be waiting for people and not people waiting for vaccines”, since those who wish to be vaccinated have already been or registered. However, there is a significant amount of Poles who refuse to be immunized.
Rejection of the national vaccine plan
At the end of 2020, the Warsaw Social Research Institute (IBRIS) released a report that showed that 44% of Poland’s population rejected immunization. Anti-vaccine movements have grown significantly in the country recently.
In 2019, the number of residents who did not receive mandatory vaccines was 48,609, against 3,437 in 2010. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has recorded almost three million cases and more than 73 thousand deaths.
