California Vaccine Lottery: from which counties were the 15 June winners and how much did they win?
A number of states have offered cash incentives to encourage residents to get the covid-19 vaccine, but California's $116 million lottery is the most lucrative.
On Tuesday California Gov. Gavin Newsom took to the stage at Universal Studios, Hollywood to announce the latest winners of the state’s vaccine lottery. Newsom has introduced the enormous prize draw in the hope of convincing vaccine skeptics to get the life-saving shots.
On Tuesday Newsom drew 10 lucky winners who will receive a $1.5 million cash prize, as part of the ‘Vax for the Win’ incentive programme. Here’s what we know about the winners.
Where were the California Vaccine Lottery winners from?
All California residents to have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine were entered into the prize draw, which offered cash, gift cards and other gifts like free tuition for the winners. So far the latest ten winners have only been identified by their anonymous lottery number and their county:
- Four from Los Angeles County
- One from Marin County
- One from Riverside County
- One from Santa Barbara County
- One from Sacramento County
- One from Stanislaus County
- One from Ventura County
This lucky group each won $1.5 million, following on from two draws earlier this month in which a total of 30 people received $50,000 cash prizes.
Two of the previous winners were brought on stage by Newsom at Universal Studios, who outlined their plans for the lucrative windfall. One woman said she planned to buy a new car and computer and hoped to take a trip to Portugal with the winnings. She admitted that she did not even know about the lottery before hearing that she had won.
Newsom urges Californians to remain cautious
The California Vaccine Lottery is a $116 million state-funded incentive programme that is hoped to prove crucial in the battle against the coronavirus. Across the United States vaccination rates have plummeted in recent weeks, falling from 3.4 million daily doses in April to little over one million now.
Around 43% of the US population are now fully vaccinated, but the growth of so-called ‘variants of concern’ like the Delta mutation are concerning state leaders.
Upon drawing the lottery winners on Tuesday, Newsom announced that more than 70% of Californians have now received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. However he added that it was “not a day to spike the football; this is not a day where we announce mission accomplished, quite the contrary.”
“We are here because of your hard work,” he continued. “We’re here because of your resilience. We’re here because of 40 million Californians that met, dare I say, the moment — many different moments over the course of the last 15 months.”
The $1.5 million prizes were supposed to mark the end of the lottery incentive, but Newsom has just announced a new set of prizes to be drawn on 1 July. Six lucky residents will win an all-expenses-paid vacation to one of a number of top destinations in the state, with hotels, food, entertainment and $2,000 for expenses included.