A woman has been handed £700,000 ($1million) for getting her coronavirus jab as a state in America gives out cash in a bid to drive take up rates.
And a teenager has also had his university education paid for after signing up for the same lottery programme.
Engineer Abbigail Bugensk won the £708,000 prize and says she got her injection before the cash payouts were announced and now she’s won she wants to encourage others to have theirs too.
Joseph Costello, 14, won free tuition at any state university in the Vax-a-Million vaccination incentive.
Ohio is still set to give out another $4 million in prizes, and will announce the next winners on Monday.
Nearly 2.8 million residents have already entered the draw and had their jabs, health officials said.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the idea on Wednesday, May 12 to boost lagging vaccination rates.
(Image: Dayton 247 Now)
He said: “We’re excited that this has inspired so many Ohioans to get vaccinated, and we’re thrilled to announce the winners of the first round of drawings.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money,’” the governor said when he announced the incentive.
But added the real waste, “is a life lost to Covid-19.”
More than 2.7 million adults signed up for the $1 million prize and more than 104,000 children ages 12 to 17 entered the drawing for the college scholarship, which includes tuition, room and board, and books.
Four more $1 million and college scholarship winners will be announced each week for the next four weeks.
The Ohio Lottery conducted the first drawing Monday afternoon at its draw studio in Cleveland using a random number generator to pick the winners ahead of time, and then confirmed the eligibility of the ultimate winner.
Participants had to register to enter by phone or via the Vax-a-Million website.
Teens can register themselves, but parents or legal guardians must verify their eligibility and those who don’t win will be carried over week to week.
Following Ohio’s giveaways, similar vaccine-incentive lotteries were started in Colorado, Maryland, New York state and Oregon.
It comes as India scrapped local trials for “well-established” foreign coronavirus vaccines on Thursday to fast-track imports as it battles a devastating second wave of the pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
In the UK health secretary Matt Hancock says 73% of adults have had their first Covid vaccine, and “super mutant” coronavirus variants that are “more infectious” may emerge as vaccinations increase, an expert has warned.
Professor Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said the virus will “do some weird things”.
He added that Covid is unpredictable and misplaced confidence could be dangerous – as the Indian variant “is just the beginning”.