Houston Health Department will give you $25 gift card once you’re fully vaccinated

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The Houston Health Department is offering an incentive to try to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.

You’ll earn a $25 gift card once you’ve received your second COVID-19 dose.

The incentive only applies if you get the vaccine starting Monday, Aug. 2 at one of the health department’s health centers or multi-service center clinics.

The following places are eligible sites:

Acres Home Multi-Service Center, 6719 W. Montgomery Rd.
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Hiram Clarke Multi-Service Center, 3810 W. Fuqua St.
Tuesdays: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

La Nueva Casa de Amigos Health Center, 1809 North Main St.
Mondays/Thursdays: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Magnolia Multi-Service Center, 7037 Capitol St.
Thursdays: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Saturdays: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Northside Health Center, 8504 Schuller Rd.

Mondays/Thursdays: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Sharpstown Health Services, 6201 Bonhomme Rd.
Mondays/Thursdays: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Southwest Multi-Service Center, 6400 High Star Dr.
Saturdays: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Sunnyside Health Center, 4605 Wilmington St.
Mondays/Thursdays: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

To encourage people to return for their second dose, you’ll have to complete vaccination within 42 days of your first dose.

The incentive will last until 1,900 total gift cards for Walmart, Target, Old Navy, Ross, Amazon, Shell, Walgreens, and METRO are awarded.

Recipients will get their gift cards at the time of the second dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

If you get the Pfizer vaccine, you’ll receive a second dose three to six weeks later. For those who get Moderna, you’ll get your second dose four to six week after the first dose.

People who are 18 and older are eligible to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, while those 12 and older can receive Pfizer.

Health experts warn, though, you don’t want to stop at just getting one dose of the vaccine.

“Your first dose will offer you some protection against it, but the second dose, it really increases that level of immunity and your ability to fight the disease,” said Tesha Montgomery, a registered nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Montgomery told that Methodist has seen more people getting the COVID-19 shot week-over-week.

They went from 400 first doses a day to 600. As of this past Monday, that number jumped to 1,000 first doses in one day. It’s the first time they’ve seen those kinds of numbers since the beginning of June.

Health officials say time is of the essence to get vaccinated because of the delta variant, which is highly transmissible.

Just last week, an internal document from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the surging variant appears to cause more severe illness and spreads as easily as chickenpox.