Even though Fort Bend County has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate of all Texas counties, Fort Bend County Judge KP George announced Tuesday that the Delta variant of the coronavirus has caused local virus metrics to spike enough for him to raise the county’s COVID threat level from yellow to orange, asking all county residents to minimize contact with others and imploring folks to mask up and get vaccinated if they haven’t already.

“If you’re not vaccinated, please,” George begged, “participate in your own rescue.”

Harris County similarly raised its coronavirus threat level last week, citing Delta’s spread throughout the Houston area’s unvaccinated population. The troubling rise of the Delta variant over the past few weeks has led to not only threat level shifts, but to increased pleas from public health experts such as Baylor College of Medicine’s Dr. Peter Hotez for the unvaccinated to get shots pronto.

To help entice hesitant locals who still haven’t taken any of the widely available, highly-effective COVID-19 vaccines, the Houston Health Department announced earlier this week it would start offering gift cards as incentives to folks who get fully vaccinated at several of the department’s local vaccination sites.

Anyone who gets fully vaccinated within 42 days of getting their first shot (or opts to take the one shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine) at any of the following locations in the timeframes listed below will receive a $25 gift card from either Walmart, Target, Old Navy, Ross, Amazon, Shell, Walgreens or METRO Houston as long as supplies last, according to the city health department: