In order to encourage more and more people to get vaccinated for the Covid-19, some states have come up with lottery incentives. Out of these states, one of the first to adopt vaccination incentive programs in Ohio.
Ohio introduced the Vax-a-Million lottery and a woman in southwestern Ohio has already won the first $1 million. Another vaccination incentive was won by a teenager in the Dayton area who earned a full-ride college scholarship.
These winners were randomly selected from a drawing that involved 1.5 million participants.
The Ohio lottery revealed the credentials of these winners. The winning woman of $1 million is Abbigail Bugenske who resides in Silverton near Cincinnati. The lucky teen to have won the scholarship is Joseph Costello who belongs to Englewood near Dayton.
Governor Mike DeWine expressed his excitement over the state’s first winners of the vaccination incentive program.
The first round of lottery has certainly encouraged and persuaded people to get their vaccine jabs. This has helped the state in getting as much of the public vaccinated as it can.
According to statistics more than 2.7 million have enrolled in a $1 million lottery prize. As far as the college scholarship drawing is concerned 104,000 students aged 12-17 have signed up for that.
The winners of the two programs will be announced every Wednesday over a span of four weeks. This is expected to speed up the vaccination process and limit the further spread of the virus.
The first drawing was held by the Ohio Lottery at its draw studio which is located in Cleveland. The winners were selected ahead of time using an arbitrary number generator. The lottery officials then had to check if the ultimate winners even met the eligibility criteria.
Those interested in participating are supposed to register for an entry through phone or the Vax-a-Million’s official website. For teens, the parents or legal guardians are liable to verify their eligibility.
The names of participants who don’t win are carried forward to the next drawing.
The state Governor revealed that people were against this million-dollar drawing idea and thought it was a waste of money. But the governor was wise enough to retort that real waste was losing someone to Covid-19.
The concept of the lottery incentive has apparently worked because with its introduction the vaccine turnover surged by 33% at the initial stage. However, the vaccination rates continue to remain below statistics that were recorded in March and April.
In order to take part in Vax-a-Million, the participant must be a permanent resident of Ohio. Additionally, they must have received either the first dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson. This is the basic requirement for participants and those who don’t meet these requirements are not eligible. Similar vaccine incentives are now being carried out in other states like Oregon, New York state, Colorado, and Maryland.