By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — In an effort to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates, Delaware launched an incentive program on Tuesday called “DE Wins!” featuring prizes like vacations, scholarships, tickets to various events, gift cards, state park passes and more.

For the biggest prize, every Delawarean who is vaccinated before June 30 will be entered to win a $302,000 cash prize and two low-number Delaware license plates through a drawing conducted by the Delaware Lottery. The license plates are in the triple digits, Gov. John Carney said.

“We wanted to make it fun,” he said. “We wanted to make it very Delaware.”

Delawareans vaccinated at locations managed by the Delaware Division of Public Health and the Delaware Emergency Management Agency between the days of May 25 and June 29 will receive a $10 gift card to either Grotto Pizza or Wawa, or a $10 VISA gift card.

A full list of vaccination sites is available here.

Delawareans 12 years old and above who are vaccinated from May 25 to June 29 also will be entered to win $5,000 in cash and other prizes in twice-weekly drawings by the Delaware Lottery. Any Delawarean between the ages of 12 and 17 already vaccinated will be eligible for those prizes as well.

The other prizes include: a four-day vacation, a full scholarship to a Delaware university, (University of Delaware, Delaware State University or Delaware Tech), tickets and camping at Firefly Music Festival, prize packages from partners including Funland, the Wilmington Blue Rocks and the Delmarva Shorebirds, and annual Delaware State Park passes. The drawings will be done on Mondays and Fridays from May 31 to June 30.

Additionally, Delaware small businesses will offer customer incentives to any Delawareans vaccinated so far and those vaccinated during the DE Wins! timeframe. The Delaware Division of Small Business has launched the Small Business Incentive Fund to reimburse eligible qualifying businesses for incentives which will include restaurants, bars, breweries and gyms, according to state officials.

Full details on prizes and eligibility is available here.

Gov. Carney said the state has had trouble getting people to sign up for vaccine appointments in the last several weeks and saw the success of similar incentive programs in states like Ohio and Maine.

“This has been happening in states all across the country as you accommodated those who were motivated to get vaccinated then you have some who are hesitant, some who are more hesitant and some who don’t want to be vaccinated at all. We’re trying to get to each of those populations and get them over the line,” Gov. Carney said. “We read and heard about what has been happening in other states and we thought we would include that as an additional incentive to help us meet our goal of 70% vaccinated by July 4.”

Gov. Carney said the state has $5 million set aside for the campaign. He added the state anticipates the program will be covered with federal funds.

As of Monday, Delaware providers had administered 881,281 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. About 65% of Delawareans 18 or older have received at least one dose, according to state officials.

The most recent vaccination and COVID-19 statistics were unavailable Tuesday, due to a statewide network issue on Monday which caused a delay in reporting on Tuesday.