May 12, 2021 12:00:00

Uber and Lyft announce free transfer to new Corona vaccination site

President Biden has taken steps to ensure that 70% of American adults will be vaccinated at least once by July 4, 2021. As one of them, it announced that it will start a program 'to allow anyone to go to the vaccination site for free' in partnership with ride-hailing services Lyft and Uber.

FACT SHEET: President Biden to Announce Additional Efforts to Get America Vaccinated, Including Free Rides to Vaccination Sites from Lyft and Uber, Vaccination Clinics at Community Colleges, and Additional Resources for States' Community Outreach Efforts | The White House

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-additional-efforts-to-get-america-vaccinated-including- free-rides-to-vaccination-sites-from-lyft-and-uber-vaccination-clinics-at-community-colleges-and-addit /

Statement from Uber CEO on White House Announcement | Uber Newsroom
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/statement-from-uber-ceo/

Vaccines for All: Announcing Free Rides for Anyone Getting a Shot --Lyft Blog
https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/vaccines-for-all-announcing-free-rides-for-anyone-getting-a-shot

Uber, Lyft to Provide Free Rides to Covid-19 Vaccine Sites Until July 4 --WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-lyft-to-provide-free-rides-to-covid-19-vaccine-sites-until-july-4-11620745200

President Biden announced on May 11 that a community college in the country will be the venue for vaccination in order to promote national vaccination. The effort is aimed at coordinating community colleges and pharmacies, primarily to allow students, school staff and community members to be vaccinated. We also plan to make billions of dollars of additional funding available to facilitate vaccination.

At the same time, we also announced a new program in partnership with Lyft and Uber.

The affiliated program will provide free transportation from home to 80,000 vaccination sites nationwide on Lyft and Uber apps. The user can select the vaccination site near his home from the app, and then wait and board according to simple instructions. The program will start in the next two weeks and will continue until July 4.

Although vaccination is progressing in the United States, it is reported that the demand for vaccination has declined in recent weeks . In order for society to escape the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection and return to its original state, it is necessary to increase the vaccination rate, but the tendency of declining demand is considered to be a barrier. President Biden's new program is one way to remove the barriers.

As part of the partnership, information on 80,000 vaccination sites will be provided to Lyft and Uber.

According to Lyft and Uber, they haven't received any funding from the government for this free transfer. On the other hand, the number of users of Lyft and Uber is decreasing due to the pandemic, so it is thought that this free transfer is expected to recover the service usage rate of existing users and acquire new users.