More than 350,000 have entered, but only one Mainer will walk away next week with the big COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes jackpot.
As of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, 350,256 Mainers have entered the “Vaccinationland Sweepstakes,” according to Robert Long, a spokesperson for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
By 2 p.m. Thursday, the jackpot had reached $891,207. Between now and 6 a.m. July 4, a dollar will be added to that pot of cash for every new Mainer who gets the jab. A winner will be chosen randomly, and announced on the Fourth of July.
That sweepstakes is part of Maine’s effort to get 70 percent of people here fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before July 4, in line with President Joe Biden’s goal for the nation.
Currently, 745,900 Mainers, or 63 percent of the population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 786,447, or 66 percent of the state’s population, have received a final dose, according to the Maine CDC.
Registration, which closed Wednesday, was open for any person over the age of 12 who received a vaccination after Dec. 15, 2020.