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Ohio has revealed the first big winners in its million-dollar vaccine lottery, which was introduced to boost vaccination rates in the state.
The first of five weekly draws was conducted on Monday but the announcement was made Wednesday evening to allow time to confirm the eligibility of the winners.
Abbigail Bugenske of Silverton, in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, is the winner of the $1m cash prize. Joseph Costello of Englewood, a town about an hour north of Cincinnati, was announced as the winner of a four-year scholarship to any university within the state’s public education system, which is the prize for under-18s.
“Congratulations to Abbigail and Joseph,” Governor Mike DeWine said in a tweet.
Ohio’s willingness to offer five $1m prizes and five four-year scholarships is one of the boldest, but perhaps fairest, of the vaccine incentive programmes announced by state and city leaders. Residents who had been vaccinated in the earlier months of the state’s rollout were allowed to participate in the draw.
New York is giving scratch cards to any adult who gets vaccinated this week, giving them a chance at winning $5m and other cash prizes in the Mega Multiplier Lottery.
On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took a leaf from Ohio’s book and announced a vaccination incentive scheme aimed at teens. Fifty full, four-year scholarships to any of the state’s public universities are up for grabs, with 10 winners announced each week between now and July 7.
DeWine, when announcing the Vax-a-Million scheme earlier this month, said detractors might regard the scheme as “a waste of money”, but he said “the real waste at this point in the pandemic — when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it — is a life lost to Covid-19”.
Almost 5.3m Ohioans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data released on Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That represents a 6.6 per cent increase since Vax-a-Million was announced on May 12, just shy of the average of all state rates over that period, which was 6.7 per cent, according to an FT analysis of CDC figures.
Ohio has given a first dose to 45.1 per cent of its population, compared with the national average of 49.7 per cent.