Ohio to give five residents $1 million each in vaccine lottery
The state of Ohio will award five vaccinated residents $1 million each in an effort to raise vaccination percentages, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Wednesday.
“Two weeks from tonight on May 26th, we will announce a winner of a separate drawing for adults who have received at least their first dose of the vaccine. This announcement will occur each Wednesday for five weeks, and the winner each Wednesday will receive one million dollars,” DeWine said in a tweet thread Wednesday.
The drawings will be conducted by the Ohio lottery, DeWine said. All Ohio residents over the age of 18 are eligible, so long as they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The winners will be chosen from Ohio’s public voter registration database. Those who are not registered to vote but want to be included in the drawing can sign up through a website that will be made available in the upcoming weeks.
The funds for the $5 million gifts and costs of running the drawing will come from existing federal COVID-19 relief funds, according to DeWine. He did not specify what the funds had originally been allocated for.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money.’ But truly, 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,” DeWine tweeted Wednesday.
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