Inslee to announce winner of $1 million COVID-19 vaccine lottery prize today – KING5.com

The winner of Washington's "Shot of a Lifetime" COVID-19 vaccine lottery is expected to be announced Friday by Gov. Jay Inslee.

OLYMPIA, Wash. Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to announce the grand prize winner Friday of Washington's "Shot of a Lifetime" COVID-19 vaccine lottery.

The winner was chosen Tuesday and contacted in the following days by Washington's Lottery officials. They will be the winner of a $1 million grand prize.

On Tuesday, the state also picked another 368 numbers for a number of other prizes, including those that were not claimed during the previous four drawings.

These prizes were for things like a pair of Club Level Seattle Seahawks tickets with a $50 parking pass, seven Nintendo Switch Packs, 30 state parks camping gift cards and 148 Discover Passes.

Winners for the first four $250,000 prizes were chosen through June. Click here for a list of all the prizes available during the fifth and final drawing.

The Shot of a Lifetime vaccine lottery was announced by Inslee and his team in early June with millions of dollars in prizes, including cash.

Data from the Washington State Department of Health shows the lottery increased vaccinations by 24%, with the largest boost among youth under 18.

As of Tuesday, the state said 4,123,601 Washingtonians 18 years old and up have at least initiated their vaccination process. By comparison, on June 8, just after the state announced the lottery, there were 3,904,156 Washingtonians who had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The point of the lottery was to help boost Washingtons vaccination rate so that the state would hit Inslees goal of 70% of residents 16 years old and up having at least gotten one dose of the vaccine by June 30.

While the state did not meet that goal by June 30, it did finally hit the mark this week. As of Wednesday, 70% of Washingtonians 16 years old and up had gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The milestone came just two weeks after the state fully reopened on June 30, almost a year and a half after it closed down.

While the "Shot of a Lifetime" lottery comes to a close, Inslee and state health officials are continuing to encourage everyone to get vaccinated to protect themselves against the coronavirus and variants of the virus.

Inslee recently introduced A Heroes Thanks, a similar program but aimed specifically at military members, their families, and veterans who were not included in "Shot of a Lifetime." The first drawing is expected to take place on Tuesday, July 20, and looks to encourage those in the armed forces to get the shot.

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