6 SoCal Residents Win $50,000 In Vax For The Win Drawing After State Pulled More Winners Friday
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Fifteen more vaccinated California residents -- including three from Los Angeles County and one each from Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties -- won $50,000 prizes in the state's COVID-19 vaccine incentive program.
Friday's winners join 15 others who were chosen last week as part of the state's $116.5 million "Vax for the Win" incentive program.
The winners chosen Friday were part of 21.98 million eligible residents.
The winners, who were not publicly identified, will be contacted by the state in the coming days. Newsom said Friday that two of last week's winners could not be reached, and two alternate winners were chosen from last week's finalists.
Almost everyone in the state who has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine is eligible for the drawing. However, to actually receive the money, winners will have to complete the vaccination protocol by receiving their second dose, unless they received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
At Friday's event in Vista, Newsom presented a ceremonial $50,000 check to one of last week's winners, 17-year-old Nancy Gutierrez.
On Tuesday, the day California lifts the bulk of its COVID-19 restrictions, the state will pick 10 winners who will receive $1.5 million each.
Newsom said the incentive program has been effective, noting that the state has seen a 13% week-over-week uptick in the number of vaccines administered -- making California one of only a handful of states to see an increase in vaccination rates.
On Friday, Newsom said the state had administered nearly 40 million vaccines.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)