15 More '$50,000 Friday' Calif. Vaccine Lottery Winners Picked

VISTA, CA - Gov. Gavin Newsom played emcee Friday for the selection of 15 more winners of $50,000 in the "Vax for the Win" lottery drawing, designed to incentivize Californians to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

This was the second "$50,000 Friday," after 15 winners were drawn last week. On Tuesday, 10 additional Californians will be selected to receive $1.5 million each.

The broadcast of Friday's announcement featured Newsom at a vaccine clinic in Vista, and the actual drawing taking place at California Lottery Headquarters in Sacramento. The event included 1970s game-show music, Newsom presenting a giant check to one of last week's winners and the Sacramento Kings' lion mascot Slamson pulling the winning balls from a giant drum.

Newsom used the event as a chance to highlight the progress the state has made on vaccines - some of it seemingly due to the lottery program - and in lowering COVID rates, which has allowed the state to move beyond the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and fully re-open this Tuesday.

"We are here to celebrate one of our drawing winners from last week, and have the opportunity to highlight not only the successful vaccine efforts here in California, but the successful efforts to incentivize more people to get vaccinated," Newsom said.

According to the governor, the state is just shy of administering 40 million doses of vaccine, which is significantly more than any other state, including 15.9 million more than second-place Texas. California had a 13-percent increase in vaccinations compared to last week, making it one of the only states to achieve a week-over-week increase in the rate of vaccinations.

Newsom said that since "Vax for the Win" was launched, roughly two million vaccine doses have been reported, including over 700,000 residents of the state starting their vaccination process. The state already has surpassed President Joe Biden's goal of having 70-percent of adults with at least one vaccine dose by July 4.

The governor also noted the state's COVID-19 positivity rate was below 1 percent and COVID-related hospitalizations had dropped below 1,000 for the first time in over a year.

Newsom then introduced 17-year-old Nancy Gutierrez, a San Diego-area teen who won $50,000 in last week's drawing. Gutierrez, who just completed her junior year of high school, said she thought somebody might be playing a joke when her mother got the phone call informing her about the prize.

"I think it's confirmed now because I'm here," Gutierrez said.

The governor signed the oversized check for Gutierrez, who said she wants to attend college and study business.

Then it was time to throw it up to Sacramento for the drawing, which featured Assemblyman Kevin McCarty ( D-7th-Sacramento), State Sen. Dr. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-5th-Stockton) and Slamson The Lion, who chose 15 balls from a drum. Newsom explained that 21.98 million Californians had been eligible for the drawing. First, 200 names were selected. Then, 50 of those names ended up in the drum.

Initially, the winners are identified by their county. After being contacted, they can choose whether to go public. Newsom said the state had made contact with 13 of the 15 winners from the first drawing, and backups would be drawn if the two other winners could not be contacted.

There were 12 counties represented in Friday's drawing, with three winners coming from Los Angeles County - drawing jeers from some of the San Diego-area locals at the Newsom event - and two from Santa Clara County.

Before taking questions from the media, Newsom highlighted some of the economic strides the state has made recently, and tied the progress to the state's ability to combat the virus.

Newsom said 38 percent of American jobs created in April were in California, after 41 percent of new February jobs were in the state. He said the state is generating close to an $80 billion operating surplus.

"We're talking about California roaring back, so we appropriately have a lion mascot," Newsom said referring to Slamson, the Kings' mascot.

Newsom continued: "We're roaring back because we've had a health-first focus, and I'm very proud of that, and it's driven our economic resiliency. And those are not just my words, but words advanced by economists."