OLYMPIA — Governor Inslee upped the ante Thursday in his effort to get 70% of our state’s population vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of this month.
He just announced that vaccinated Washington residents are automatically eligible for the state’s vaccine lottery with a $1 million jackpot, along with other cash prizes and giveaways.
There’s nothing you need to do if you’ve had your shots. The Washington State Lottery will gather names from the Department of Health’s statewide immunization database.
Starting next week, the state will conduct one drawing for $250,000 every week for four weeks, and there will be an additional drawing for the $1 million prize at the end.
Also, an additional $1 million will be dispersed directly to public four-year universities and two-year community and technical colleges to run their own drawings for free tuition and expenses for vaccinated students.
The state is also going to offer 30 prizes of one year of college tuition to 12-17-year-olds.
Finally, vaccinated residents will be eligible to win two free airline tickets to anywhere Alaska Airlines flies and tickets to Seattle sports teams.