In tonight’s Daily Debrief, Gov. Charlie Baker announces a new lottery program to boost vaccination rates, offering $1 million prizes. Plus, surge pricing returns to rideshares in Massachusetts and the South Shore bear is spotted again.
Looking forward to the chance to win a million dollars just for getting the COVID vaccine?
We now know when five fully vaccinated adults living in Massachusetts will become winners of the state's VaxMillions giveaway, which opens to participants July 1, and five fully vaccinated kids 12-17 will win one of five $300,000 scholarship grants.
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Winners will be staggered over a five-week span from July 29 to Aug. 26, Gov. Charlie Baker's administration announced Friday.
A new winner will be drawn each week and announced three days later, with the entry deadline for the drawing one week before the announcement. The deadline is the day a person becomes fully vaccinated -- each of the three vaccines takes a different amount of time to become fully effective.
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The table below shows when each drawing will occur and how many drawings those participating will qualify for, depending on the day they're fully vaccinated.
Registration will be done through the state's VaxMillions Giveaway website, and details on how to do it will be revealed before it's opened on Thursday, according to the site.
Only residents who are fully vaccinated are eligible to enter the drawings, the Baker administration reminded the public. And winnings will be subject to tax, we confirmed.
The program, announced earlier this month, aims to increase an already strong vaccination rate in Massachusetts. As of Friday, some 60.5% of Bay State residents have been fully vaccinated -- either two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson -- trailing only Vermont and Maine among the 50 states.
More information on the VaxMillions program can be found here.
