North Carolina to announce first COVID-19 vaccine lottery winners Monday

Updated: For more on who won the first COVID-19 vaccination lottery in North Carolina, see this story.

North Carolina will announce the first two winners of its COVID-19 vaccination lottery on Monday, with the lucky individuals earning large cash and scholarship prizes as part of a continued bid to increase vaccination rates around the state.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Saturday that the announcement will be made by Gov. Roy Cooper and DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen at 10 a.m. Monday.

The winner of the Summer Cash Drawing will receive $1 million, while the winner of the Summer Cash 4 College Drawing will receive $125,000 in funding towards post-secondary education.

Both winners were selected randomly on June 23.

The drawings come as part of the state’s Bringing Summer Back campaign, which aims to encourage people in the state to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Those aged 18 or older who get vaccinated are automatically entered into the $1 million drawing, while those 12 to 17 years old are entered into the scholarship drawing.

Three other winners will be selected for each of the two drawings, with people being chosen every other Wednesday until Aug. 4.

Scholarship and cash prizes have cropped up in various states around the country over the past two months, as the nation hopes to reach higher vaccination rates.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden traveled to Raleigh to encourage people to get the vaccine.

North Carolina still lags far behind Biden’s target of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. As of June 25, DHHS reported that just 55% of adults had received one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

That’s lower than the U.S. as a whole, which has seen nearly 66% of adults get at least one dose of the vaccine. At its current pace, North Carolina is not expected to reach 70% before Thanksgiving.

This story was originally published June 26, 2021 at 1:58 PM.