Vaccine Lottery? Australian Woman Wins $1M for Getting Vaccinated

An Australian woman, recognized as Joanne Zhu, won the country’s vaccine lottery prize. Three million people have competed to get the one million “Australian” prize, Sky News reported.

The prize, which amounts to over one million Australian dollars (USD744,900) and was won by the 25-year-old Joanne, aimed at raising the vaccination rate among people in Australia.

According to sources, a group of philanthropists and companies, known as the Million Dollar Vax Alliance, has allocated the vaccine lottery with the aim to push more Australians vaccinated against COVID-19.

The vaccine lottery winner revealed that she was at work when the lottery's organisers were trying to contact her to inform her of her win.

Zhu revealed to Nine's Today programme: "Then I called them back and the lady said: "Oh, you won a million dollars! You're the only one in Australia'."

On how she is spending her cash, the winner said that she has multiple plans including reuniting with her family, buying some presents, and leaving some for future investments.

Furthermore, one of the vaccine lottery organizers stated that the Million Dollar Vax Alliance campaign worked to fully-vaccinate 80% of those aged over 16 in the country. Craig Winkler added that this wasn’t the only prize the program gave; there were multiple prizes of 100 gift cards worth $1,000 (£550) each day in October.

Australia’s total COVID-19 cases hit 130K since the start of the pandemic while deaths topped 1,448. The country has announced the start of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots; While today marks the formal beginning of the booster program, over 173,000 boosters had already been administered, ABC News reported.