Retired teacher scores $1 million prize in Louisiana’s COVID vaccine lottery
Getting the COVID-19 vaccine paid off big for one retired teacher in Louisiana.
Janet Mann, 63, of Bossier City, scored the $1 million grand prize in the state’s “Shot at a Million” vaccine lottery program, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Friday. Edwards called Mann to deliver the good news and thanked her for being one of more than 1.7 million Louisianans to get inoculated against the virus.
“I appreciate it so much,” Mann told Edwards, according to a video posted by the governor’s office. “I’m still in shock. I think. Thanks for calling because now I can believe it’s real.”
Edwards also announced the final five winners of $100,000 scholarships awarded by the state. They are:
- Emma Fisackerly, 16, of New Orleans
- Emily Guillet, 13, of Baton Rouge
- Gavin Harrington, 13, of Rosedale
- Jackson Page, 17, of New Orleans
MacKenzie Rigdon, 15, of Metairie
The “Shot at a Million” initiative kicked off June 21, and over the last six weeks, the Pelican State has awarded $2.3 million in prizes as part of its push to get people vaccinated. In all, there were 14 winners — five cash and nine scholarship recipients, according to the governor’s office.
Edwards praised the winners as a “shining example of Louisianans doing their part to help put this pandemic behind us.”
Louisiana, like other states, is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant, and 100% of its counties have a “high risk” of community spread. As of Friday, unvaccinated people accounted for 91% of COVID patients hospitalized across the state, data from Louisiana’s Department of Health show.
“Our state is in a tough fight against this fourth surge of COVID-19, and we need our people to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” Edwards said in a statement. “We know from countless hospital and medical staff across our state that the delta variant is having a serious impact throughout all of our communities on adults and children alike. Getting the vaccine is easy and free, and more than 50 percent of Louisianans already have gotten one shot.”
“I know we can do it,” he concluded. “We’ve done it before, and I have every confidence that we will do it again.”