KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nearly 91% of all adult entries in the MO VIP incentive program, which aimed to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates in Missouri, were initiated before the program started.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, among the 616,950 adult entries, 559,833 were categorized as people who’d already been vaccinated before the program was announced and 57,117 were categorized as people who were vaccinated after the announcement.
The state will announce the final 80 winners of a $10,000 cash payment from each entry category on Oct. 20. The drawing took place last Friday.
A total of 400 people from the two groups will win a cash prize, but the odds are much greater for those who were vaccinated after the program was announced — roughly one in 143 entrants in the Red group — compared to those who were vaccinated early.
Only one in 1,400 entrants from the group of previously-vaccinated people will win, making it nearly 10 times less likely.
There also were 39,309 children ages 12 to 17 years-old, who were entered into the MO VIP sweepstakes for the chance to receive a $10,000 award into a MOST 529 account for educational expenses, but the state health department didn’t distinguish between those entrants — dubbed the Blue group — based on vaccination date.
Among the 149,964 entries in Districts 5 and 6, which includes the Kansas City area, 136,198 — or nearly 91%, which is in line with the statewide average — were from people vaccinated before the program was announced.
More than 3.3 million Missouri residents have initiated vaccination and more than 2.9 million have completed a COVID-19 vaccine regimen, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ online dashboard.
Roughly one in five Missourians who have received a COVID-19 vaccine entered the lottery.
Both rates, 54.4% initiation and 48.4% completion, lag well behind the national average.
There have been more than 750,000 cases and nearly 12,500 deaths from COVID-19, according to state and local reports compiled for the KSHB 41 News COVID-19 tracker.
Entries into the program closed on Oct. 6.
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