California, the most populous state in the United States, this Thursday became the most recent in a series of states to announce a millionaire lottery to encourage their residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19: the winners of the draw will win $ 1.5 million , the most generous award of all those that have been announced in the country so far.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced that
residents will be eligible for a total of $ 116.5 million in cash prizes
that also include gift cards.
The initiative comes as the state of nearly 40 million people is preparing to fully reopen next month.
The reopening is set for June 15.
That day, 15 million of the total amount will be distributed among 10 winners registered in the lottery.
A few days before, on June 4 and 11, the state will distribute prizes of $ 50,000 to 30 vaccinated people who win.
[In seven states 70% of adults are vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine]
The next 2 million people to get vaccinated will receive $ 50 gift cards.
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The only requirement to participate in the raffle is to have been vaccinated.
In the event that the winner is a minor, the money will be deposited in a savings account until the lucky person reaches 18 years of age.
The director of the California Department of Public Health, Tomás Aragón, explained that this program "is designed to encourage those who need additional support to get vaccinated and help keep California safe."
The state estimates that about 12 million Californians age 12 and older have not been vaccinated.
About 63% of the 34 million eligible have already been vaccinated, although the rate has slowed markedly in recent weeks.
57% of Hispanics in California are not yet vaccinated.
Other states, such as Ohio, New York, Colorado, Oregon and Maryland, have also organized million-dollar state lotteries among their populations to encourage vaccinations.
This week, Ohio announced the first winners of the Vax-a-Million state drawing: Abbigail Bugenske, who resides in Silverton, near Cincinnati, won the million dollar prize and a 14-year-old from the Dayton area took the university scholarship awarded to minors.
Bugenske, 22, had started a four-hour drive to Cleveland to see his parents and buy a used car when his phone rang.
She thought it was a joke, but it was the governor himself, who called her to surprise her with the good news.
"Vaccinations have always been in my medical record. It was a pretty easy decision to go get vaccinated as fast as I could," he told a news conference.
"I encourage everyone to get vaccinated. If earning a million dollars isn't incentive enough, I don't know what is."
New York is drawing
50 full scholarships for children ages 12 to 17 at public universities and state colleges
, which the state will be announcing on the next five Wednesdays.
The governor, Andrew Cuomo, had announced last week a program dubbed Vax & Scratch (in Spanish, get vaccinated and scratch), which gave lottery tickets to all those who injected themselves between May 25 and 28.
The first prize will be $ 5 million, although there will be other minors and a 1 in 9 chance of winning any of them, according to Cuomo.
"If you were undecided about getting vaccinated, or had doubts, now you have an extra incentive," he said.
"This is how we all win!"