Meet $400K Winner In MD COVID Vaccination Lottery

BALTIMORE, MD — After weeks of prize drawings for some of the Maryland residents who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, a Baltimore city man was picked July 4 to receive the $400,000 grand prize in the $2 Million VaxCash Promotion.

The lucky winner, who was chosen to remain anonymous, was randomly selected from more than 3.2 million people, the Maryland Lottery said in a news release Tuesday.

The hoopla comes as Michael Ricci, communications director for Gov. Larry Hogan, tweeted that 100 percent of the state’s coronavirus fatalities in June were among the unvaccinated. He did not list the number of June COVID-19 victims in the state, but data compiled by the New York Times showed 127 Maryland residents died from COVID in June.

That was a decrease of about 70 percent from the 458 residents killed in May by the disease.

Shortly after the drawing on Sunday, the lottery winner received phone calls and a text message from a phone number he did not recognize.

“At first I didn’t answer the phone, but after two phone calls and a text, I thought I should find out what was going on,” the winner said as he visited Maryland Lottery headquarters with his fiancé on July 6.

He still didn’t really believe it, so he asked the representative from the Maryland Department of Health who called him to friend him on social media so he could confirm her identity.

“It took me around two days to process that this was real,” the IT professional said in a news release. “I was talking with my sister before coming to claim the prize, and she still didn’t believe it.”

The Baltimore City resident, who claimed the prize anonymously and nicknamed himself “B-More Vaccinated,” took some pictures while at Lottery headquarters to send to his sister to prove that he won the $400,000 prize.

While the winner said he plans to save most of the prize money, he would also like to donate some to charity.

When asked why he chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he said it was an easy decision.

“If it’s going to help other people, it’s simple,” he said. “Just do it.”

As of July 6, Maryland had 462,681 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,537 confirmed deaths.

State data shows 75.1 percent of the state's population age 18 and older has received at least one dose of a vaccine, while 3,424,364 residents are fully vaccinated.

There are more than 100 vaccination providers across the state, including hospitals, pharmacies, and local health departments. Visit covidvax.maryland.gov to find a vaccination clinic. You will need to contact the clinic you select to register and/or to schedule an appointment. You must have an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

The VaxCash Promotion was announced May 20 by Gov. Larry Hogan to encourage Marylanders to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations while rewarding those who had. All Maryland residents 18 and older who had received a COVID-19 shot at a non-federal facility in Maryland at any time were automatically entered into daily drawings held from May 25 through July 4.

Daily drawings were held from May 25 to July 3 with a $40,000 daily prize to a vaccinated resident.

The promotion ended on the Fourth of July with the single winner of the $400,000 prize.