CA Offers Huge Vaccine Incentive: A Chance To Win $1.5 Million

CALIFORNIA — In a major push to inoculate as many Californians as possible by the state's June reopening date, Gov. Gavin Newsom is offering a massive vaccination incentive — a chance to win $1.5 million or $50,000.

It is the largest vaccination incentive program in the nation.

"These are an opportunity to say thank you to those not only seeking to get vaccinated, as we move forward, but also those that have been vaccinated," Newsom told reporters on Thursday.

As part of Newsom's $116.5 million "Vax for the Win" program, 10 Californians will have a chance to win $1.5 million each. The winners will be drawn at random on June 15.

In another drawing, $50,000 each will go to 30 winners who will be selected on June 4 and June 11. The rest, $100 million, will be automatically be given out as $50 grocery gift cards among the next 2 million Californians who become fully vaccinated. Those cards can be used at stores such as Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Albertsons, Pavilions, Safeway and Vons.

Californians 12 and older are eligible for the cash prizes too, but those who do win will have their funds placed in a savings account until they turn 18, the state said. Californians who were already vaccinated, Newsom said, will automatically be entered into both drawings.

The state keeps a list of those who have been vaccinated, but the identities of the winners will not be disclosed, Newsom noted.

"Some Californians weren’t ready to get their COVID-19 vaccine on day one, and that’s okay," Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health, said. "This program is designed to encourage those who need extra support to get vaccinated and help keep California safe."

All residents of California are eligible regardless of immigration status. But those who are incarcerated and employees for public health departments will not be entered.

A little more than 50 percent of Californians are fully vaccinated, according to state data posted Saturday. Some 12 percent, have been partially vaccinated. That leaves about 12 million unvaccinated, the state estimated on Thursday.

State leaders said they would work to ensure that the program reached families living in communities with the lowest vaccination rates, "who might face language barriers and other obstacles," Aragón said.

The incentive program will be funded by California's state emergency operations account and it will be repaid by the state's multi-billion dollar allotment of federal relief funds, CalMatters reported.

"The cost of not getting vaccinated is exponentially, incalculably higher," Newsom said.

As the state prepares to reopen in less than three weeks and Newsom barrels toward a recall election, the Democratic governor is scrambling to speed up inoculations to avoid another surge.

This week, a Public Policy Institude of California poll revealed that 57 percent of likely voters said they oppose removing Newsom from office. Some 40 percent said they would support a recall.

California's vaccination pace began to slow down over the last month and hasn't picked back up. Many recent doses were second shots, Newsom said.

"It’s those first doses, those first shots that are way down, and so you can see that cliff coming in the next week or two," Newsom said. "And this is what we’re trying to mind and trying to address."

In PPIC's May survey, respondents gave the state government higher marks on the vaccine rollout than in its January survey. Three in four said the state is doing an excellent or good job distributing vaccines.

The state is poised to finally reopen on June 15, a day where most coronavirus restrictions will be lifted. The Blueprint for a Safer Economy, which restricted counties to varying degrees depending on coronavirus prevalence, will also disappear on that day.

"We are now at a point, given our metrics that we've been watching, California is at a place where we can begin to talk about moving beyond the blueprint," Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary said earlier this month.

Cases plummeted dramatically several months ago and have remained low in stark contrast to the height of the state's winter coronavirus surge. The state's positivity rate has also consistently hovered around 1 percent, among the lowest rates in the country.

Lifting these restrictions will inevitably result in some increased transmissions, Ghaly said. But the health care system should be able to handle them, and local officials can still impose additional limits if there are outbreaks, he added.

Health officials will also continue tracking whether virus mutations start breaking through vaccinations, which he said could prompt a return to restrictions.

"We're going to be watching that very closely," he said. "But I think we are in a place statewide where we have a significant number of people vaccinated and protected."

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California Coronavirus Data As Of Saturday

• California has 3,683,309 confirmed cases to date.

• There were 1,210 newly recorded confirmed cases Friday.

• The 7-day positivity rate is 0.9%.

• There have been 65,377,460 tests conducted in California.

• There have been 61,999 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

• As of May 29, providers have reported administering a total of 37,296,257 vaccine doses statewide.