Giving hens, cows, paid leave, and even a $ 1 million apartment Asia tries to persuade its citizens to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
As the most contagious variant strains have led to an increase in cases in Southeast Asia in recent weeks, with authorities launching raffle prizes for those vaccinated.
In Mai Cham district of Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province, where the majority of the population is cattle breeders, authorities launched a lottery with cows this month, which proved to be a great success.
“It’s the best gift I ever received,” Inkham Tongham, 65, said when he won a one-year-old cow worth 10,000 baht ($ 320) after getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
Now this campaign is in its second week and there are still 27 cows left to be given. According to the authorities and as broadcast by the Athens News Agency, the campaign resulted in more than 50% of the 1,400 inhabitants of the area – many of them elderly and in vulnerable groups – to register to get vaccinated.
Of Thailand’s 66 million people, only 4.76 million have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.
Many residents in Asian countries appear reluctant to be vaccinated, with widespread misinformation and uncertainty fueling reluctance due to safety and efficacy concerns as well as for religious reasons.
In Hong Kong, where the pandemic has so far remained largely under control, authorities are worried that due to low vaccination rates, the metropolis will remain vulnerable to a virus outbreak.
Gift vouchers, airline tickets and a new apartment worth $ 10.8 million (US $ 1.4 million) are among the incentives offered in the lottery for those who are vaccinated.
Some companies go a step further by offering paid leave to those who are immunized. A private sports club, however, uses the penalty instead of the reward to persuade its staff to be vaccinated by the end of June, otherwise it will deprive them of future bonuses, promotions and salary increases.
Even in countries that have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus, such as Indonesia, authorities are struggling to curb public fears about vaccines.
Indonesia has officially recorded more than 1.9 million cases of coronavirus and 53,280 deaths. Recent studies in blood serum samples, however, show that the true prevalence of COVID-19 may be 30 times higher.
“I was afraid that if I was vaccinated, I would die immediately… Then I heard the also worrying that this vaccine is inside… a pig,” said Asep Saepuddin, 67, a resident of Tsipana, Indonesia’s West Java province.
Among Indonesian Muslims – who make up more than 85% of the country’s population – many worry about vaccines being considered ‘halal’ by Islam.
Tsipana authorities say it has been particularly difficult to convince older citizens that vaccines are safe. As in Thailand, they gave unusual incentives, offering hens to every elderly person who did vaccine.
“The elderly do not want to be vaccinated for various reasons, some say they want to but do not come, some are still scared,” said local police chief Galich Aprian. “So, we reward (their participation) with chickens.”
Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health show that only 5%, or 8.8 million people, have been fully vaccinated, far fewer than the target of 181.5 million people by the end of the year.
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