the first lottery is meant to boost vaccination uptake, which is a key marker in the province’s reopening plan but has slowed recently.
“every day that goes by that we have hundreds of thousands of people that are not vaccinated, it opens us up to a certain degree of risk. we’re trying to minimize that risk … we had very strong demand for first doses until about 10 days ago. and we saw it just drop right off,” said kenney.
stage 3 of that plan would see nearly all public health restrictions removed two weeks after 70 per cent of albertans aged 12 and older have received one shot.
as of sunday, that number was 68.7 per cent. in order to have restrictions lifted by canada day, the province will need to hit the 70 per cent benchmark by thursday.
health minister tyler shandro said that those who get two doses will triple their chance of winning compared to those who only get one dose.
“covid has already cost us billions, and this lottery is aimed at reducing the costs going forward to individual albertans who are still at risk of getting sick, and to all of us as a province,” said shandro.
shandro added that the government is exploring other incentives for young people who are not eligible for the cash draws.