New Hampshire requests no new vaccine doses as pace of vaccination slows
Governor says he's not in favor of offering vaccination incentives
Governor says he's not in favor of offering vaccination incentives
Governor says he's not in favor of offering vaccination incentives
New Hampshire continues to have an excess of COVID-19 vaccine doses, and health officials said no new vaccine doses were requested this week.
Health officials said fewer people want the show now, but they're also ordering less because the vaccine has a shelf life, and they're trying not to waste any.
The state can ask for up to about 50,000 vaccine doses each week from the federal government. Gov. Chris Sununu said that last week, the state requested 50% of its allocation.
New Hampshire has not had to send any doses back to the federal government. But despite the drop in demand and surplus of supply, Sununu is still not in favor of offering incentives, as other states have done.
"If you haven't chosen to take the vaccine by now, we're not going to pay you to do that," he said. "I'm not going to say, use a bribe or anything like that, but we're not going to overly incentivize you to make a health care choice based on money. I kind of have a fundamental block with that."
Sununu said he believes that by the end of summer, at least 70% of eligible Granite Staters will be fully vaccinated.
"It's a hard question to answer in terms of when the COVID-19 outbreak in New Hampshire is going to be over," Sununu said. "But, certainly we've seen dramatic reductions in the levels of community transmission."
The state will not renew federal unemployment benefits this summer. A decision, the governor said was driven by dropping unemployment numbers.
"Nearly 5,700 people have stopped filing for benefits, taking advantage of the state's hiring frenzy and rejoining the workforce. That's about a 17% drop in unemployment claims in just the last few weeks."
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