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Governor Albert Bryan on Friday announced the expansion of the general vaccine lottery to include USVI residents who have received only one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. He also announced an increase to $2 million from the original $1 million vaccine lottery, which correlated with his announcement of ten consecutive $100,000 drawings per district beginning July 9. Previously, the ten consecutive drawings were to be hosted territory-wide, but the drawings will be held per district, which increases the chances of vaccinated individuals of winning.
Every Virgin Islander vaccinated in the territory will be automatically entered in the general vaccine lottery as part of the Office of the Governor’s “Vax to Win USVI” public outreach campaign, Gov't House said Friday. Winners who are fully vaccinated will win a cash prize of $100,000, and winners who have received just one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will win a cash prize of $50,000.
The initial announcement specified that only fully vaccinated USVI residents would be eligible to participate.
The expanded eligibility also extends to the special drawing for school-based workers and bus drivers. The special drawing is aimed at ensuring school campuses are ready for in-person learning in the 2021-2022 school year, according to the administration.
The Office of the Governor will also launch an official “Vax to Win USVI” website, www.VaxtoWinUSVI.com, at noon on Monday. The site will feature the official rules, the dates for drawings and announcement of winners, as well as a section for school-based employees to register for the special drawing, Gov't House said.
“This outreach campaign is really about increasing awareness about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and encouraging our residents to get vaccinated,” stated Mr. Bryan said. “This week we learned that the B.1.1.7 variant – which is much more contagious than the original virus – is now in the territory, and that is a cause for serious concern with less than 50 percent of our population fully vaccinated. The vaccine is our best shot at beating this pandemic and getting our lives back to normal.”
The V.I. Department of Health on Thursday confirmed the first Covid-19 variant, B.1.1.7 in the territory and urged more Virgin Islanders to vaccinate.
The territory has remained under a state of emergency since March of 2020 when the first Covid-19 case was identified in the territory. Since then, the VI Department of Health of has administered close to 128,000 COVID-19 tests with 3,855 testing positive. More than 35,000 individuals have been fully vaccinated, according to Gov't House.
