New Orleans offers free CRAWFISH to people who get first shot of Covid-19 vaccine

Need an incentive to get vaccinated? The city council of New Orleans, Louisiana is offering locals a free pound of crawfish if they get the jab against Covid-19, in a new effort to encourage uptake.

“1 SHOT FOR 1 POUND OF CRAWFISH!” advertised the New Orleans City Council on Thursday, adding that they had teamed up with equality-focused non-profit organization Propeller to provide vaccinations and free pounds of “hot Cajun Seafood crawfish.”

The unusual vaccination drive will take place on Thursday, May 13, the announcement said.

The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines will both be administered, and the council said it would also give free gift cards – presumably for more crawfish – to the first 30 people to get vaccinated.

Propeller is also encouraging those who have already been vaccinated to “stop by” and “say hi,” though it’s not clear whether there will be any free crawfish opportunities for them.

New Orleans is not the first place in the United States to offer people a reward for getting vaccinated.

In April, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice announced he would give $100 in saving bonds to young people between the ages of 16 and 35 if they said yes to the jab. Justice was accused by some of bribery over the policy.

Nearly 400,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Louisiana since the start of the pandemic, with 9,488 deaths.

Over 1,525,000 people in the state have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 1,300,000 have been fully inoculated.

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