■ California is giving away $116.5 million to get more residents inoculated.
Top amount is $1.5M; drawing set on reopening day, June 15
LOS ANGELES — California is giving away the country’s largest pot of vaccine prize money — $116.5 million — in an attempt to get millions more inoculated before the most populous U.S. state fully reopens next month.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced the prizes, which also include the nation’s highest single vaccine prize: $1.5 million. People who have already been vaccinated will be eligible.
The state estimates about 12 million Californians 12 and older have not been vaccinated. About 63 percent of the 34 million eligible have gotten shots, though the pace has slowed markedly in recent weeks as infection rates have plummeted to record lows.
California’s reopening is pegged for June 15, and on that day a drawing will be held to award 10 vaccinated people the top prize. Newsom said he hopes the prizes will help the state ensure more than 70 percent of eligible people are vaccinated by the time the state reopens.
“We’re putting aside more resources than any other state in America and we’re making available the largest prizes of any state in America for those that seek to get vaccinated,” Newsom said from a vaccination site in Los Angeles, adding, “This is all in an effort to incentivize and build momentum.”
Another 30 people will win
$50,000 each, with those drawings starting June 4. Anyone 12 and older who has received at least one shot will be eligible. And the next 2 million people who get vaccinated will get $50 gift cards. Newsom said he hopes to give out all of those gift cards by June 15.
Ohio this week announced the first $1 million winner of its “Vax-amillion” contest, as well as the first child to win a full college scholarship.
The first winner of Ohio’s vaccination incentive prize was driving to her family’s home in suburban Cleveland when she received a call about the good news — from Gov. Mike Dewine. A few minutes later Abbigail Bugenske was in her parents’ house screaming so loudly they thought she was crying.
“A whirlwind,” Bugenske, 22, said Thursday morning during a news conference. “It absolutely has not processed yet. I am still digesting it — and I like to say that it feels like this is happening to a different person. I cannot believe it.”
Colorado and Oregon also offered $1 million prizes.
New York is raffling 50 full scholarships to children 12 to 17 to public universities and colleges in the state, selecting 10 winners each of the next five Wednesdays.
In other developments:
■ A statewide “Shot for a Shot” campaign offering free drinks for people who get vaccinated against COVID-19 will begin in June, Louisiana officials said Thursday.
■ With the governor out of the state, Idaho’s lieutenant governor issued an executive order Thursday banning mask mandates in schools and public buildings.
■ A Tennessee woman accused of driving through a COVID-19 vaccine distribution tent as a form of protest has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment, according to a police report. Virginia Christine Lewis Brown, 36, was arrested after a Blount County deputy witnessed her driving through the tent at a vaccine distribution event Monday at Foothills Mall in Maryville.