Discovery Vitality members will earn 2 500 Vitality points for COVID-19 vaccination
Discovery Vitality announced today that all Vitality members aged 18 or older will be awarded 2 500 Vitality points for being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021.
These points will be awarded retrospectively in October for those who have already been vaccinated. Discovery Vitality CEO Dinesh Govender says: “If members have already been vaccinated, there is nothing more they need to do – points will be automatically allocated before the end of the year.” Members will receive communications with further details in October.
Dinesh says that the allocation of Vitality points – used to incentivise members towards positive behaviour change – is in line with Discovery’s shared-value business model. “Vitality creates shared value by combining behavioural economics, clinical science, and incentives to encourage and reward members for taking steps to improve their health.”
“There is overwhelming proof that vaccination is the single most important thing we can do to protect ourselves and others against COVID-19. The pandemic has been deadly and a fourth wave is likely, yet the ability to suppress it remains within our control. Based on our actuarial projections, over 30 000 lives could be saved if we are able to vaccinate the majority of our population over the coming months. The data reflects the power of vaccination to save lives and reduce our healthcare burden: vaccination reduces infection and transmission risk by 50 to 80%, reduces hospitalisation risk by 60 to 90%, and reduces risk of death by over 90%. In fact, while your (unvaccinated) risk of death from COVID-19 is 8 to 10 times higher than death from flu, once vaccinated, your risk of death from COVID-19 is lower than from flu.
Given that vaccination is our best hope of beating the pandemic and restoring our national vitality and way of life, we need to encourage vaccination at scale.”
Following Adrian Gore’s announcement last week that all Discovery employees will be mandated to be vaccinated in 2022, this Vitality points allocation further reflects Discovery’s commitment to getting all South Africans vaccinated.
