Fresno County resident among winners in California’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery
A Fresno County resident is among the winners in the second round of California’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery.
The 15 winners picked Friday, once verified, will each receive $50,000.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom presided over the second round of the vaccine lottery, appearing at a Friday morning press conference in Vista while the winners were drawn in Sacramento.
Officials were able to reach 13 of the 15 winners selected in last week’s drawing, California Department of Health spokeswoman Sami Gallegos said. They made several attempts to reach the other two winners Gallegos said, and told them in “very explicit” terms of a Thursday deadline to respond or forfeit their $50,000 prize, but were unable to reach them.
Officials picked two alternate winners from Monterey and Sacramento counties Thursday and began contacting them by email, text and phone calls. They’ve reached the Monterey winner and were still trying to reach the Sacramento winner Friday morning, Gallegos said.
The verification process repeats for this week’s winners. All winners have the option of remaining anonymous.
None of last week’s winners were from the central San Joaquin Valley. Friday’s Fresno County winner was the region’s only representative this week.
Three of the new winners came from Los Angeles County, two from Santa Clara County and one each from Fresno, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Kern, San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento, Orange and Monterey counties.
Newsom presided over the drawing from the San Diego County city of Vista, the hometown of 17-year-old Nancy Gutierrez, one of the winners picked last week.
Gutierrez talked with Newsom at the event about her relief after she received her second vaccine dose and her excitement about being able to spend more time with her friends now that she is immunized. She said initially her family couldn’t believe she had won a $50,000 prize.
“They called my mom and my mom came in and was like, ‘Nancy you won’t believe it,’” she said. “We didn’t believe it at the beginning but after a few more phone calls we were like, ‘OK, I think this might be true.’”
Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and state Sen. Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, drew the lottery winners at the California State Lottery headquarters in Sacramento.
Next Tuesday, the state will select its final 10 winners, who will each receive a grand prize of $1.5 million. California residents who get vaccinated before June 15 are automatically entered in the drawings, including people who got vaccinated before the lottery was announced.
The Sacramento Bee’s Sophia Bollag contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Fresno County resident among winners in California’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery."