Who won NC’s $1 million vaccine lottery? It could take a few days to know.

North Carolina held the first of four $1 million vaccine lottery drawings Wednesday morning at the N.C. Education Lottery building, but officials say it could take a few days to determine the winner.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services first has to contact the winner and confirm their identity. The winner then has agree to be named publicly before DHHS can make the announcement.

The best case scenario for this process to finish, allowing DHHS to make the winner known to the public, is Thursday, said Hattie Gawande, senior policy and intergovernmental affairs adviser at DHHS, due to the identification forms that the winner has to submit.

It’s more likely that the winner will be announced in the days after, she said, because the winner has two days to respond to DHHS.

“It could take days,” Gawande said, “but we’re hoping it will be pretty quick.”

Gawande said the winner should expect a call from DHHS as early as Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re hoping that folks will be really vigilant,” Gawande said. “We need them to pick up the phone.”

There was also a drawing for the $125,000 scholarship prize for those ages 12 to 17 who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

This followed the same process as the $1 million drawing.

The second of four drawings this summer takes place in two weeks, on July 7.

How does the drawing work?

Anyone 18 or older who is a resident of North Carolina and was vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine prior to midnight Sunday was entered into Wednesday’s drawing.

Those who were vaccinated between June 10, when Gov. Roy Cooper first announced the lottery, and midnight Sunday were entered twice.

The drawing was administered on a computerized random number generator that assigned a number or numbers to each eligible person.

A North Carolina lottery official then conducted the drawing on the computer, with a licensed state auditor witnessing the process.

One winner was determined in the drawing along with 20 alternates.

If the winner doesn’t respond to contact from DHHS after two business days or doesn’t agree to be named publicly, they give up the $1 million.

DHHS will then go down the alternate list until a winner is determined.

Government employees who helped administer the vaccine lottery program cannot win the drawing, nor can their family members.

If someone intentionally received an unnecessary additional dose, used an alias when vaccinated, or did not provide contact information, they are not eligible either.

Any North Carolina resident who meets the criteria was entered, except for those vaccinated at clinics operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, Gawande said, due to lack of data available.

The odds of winning the vaccine lottery are about 1 in 4 million. By way of comparison, the odds of winning the Powerball lottery averages 1 in 11.6 million, according to NCEL.

Security precautions for drawing

Gawande said that DHHS put a process in place that ensures the drawing was not vulnerable to hacking.

She said the NCEL officials who conducted the drawing did not have any identifying information on their random number generator. They only had a list of numbers that DHHS provided.

DHHS has these identities on file along with their corresponding lottery numbers.

Gawande said DHHS uses a process called cryptographic hashing that allows officials to know if the file has been tampered with.

“We can be very certain that no one is going to be messing with the file,” she said.

Identifying medical information related to vaccination records is stored in a secure HIPAA-compliant computer system, Gawande said.

Is the lottery increasing the vaccine rate?

Last week, Cooper said the state has not seen a significant uptick since the lottery was announced.

Gawande said Wednesday that as more data has trickled in North Carolina did see a small bump immediately after the lottery announcement but not since then.

She said DHHS is hopeful rates will increase once the winner of the drawing is publicized.

“Judging from the attention to the drawing today, we hope there will be another small bump with each surge of media attention and each successive winner,” Gawande said.

North Carolina, with 55% of adults with at least dose, is currently not on pace to meet President Joe Biden’s 70% vaccination goal by July 4.

At the current rate, the state won’t reach that mark until November, The N&O reported earlier in June.