By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — By next Tuesday, every Delawarean age 16 years or older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Beginning at 10 a.m. on April 6, Delawareans who are 16 and over may register on Delaware’s COVID-19 vaccination waiting list. Once on the waiting list, individuals are able to receive invitations to state vaccination events.

Invitations will be contingent on supply and prioritized based on age and other risk factors, including preexisting medical conditions.

Pharmacies may also begin vaccinating Delawareans who are 16 years old and older on April 6.

“All of this is a lot easier to do when you’re registered on a registration list,” said Gov. John Carney at the state’s weekly COVID-19 press briefing Tuesday. “So take the opportunity and the time to sign up onto the state’s registration list as of next Tuesday. Then when you get that email inviting you to a clinic, take the first vaccine opportunity available to you.”

The expansion of the waiting list comes one week after all Delawareans 50 years and older became eligible to register. As of last Tuesday, those 50 years and older, those with underlying medical conditions and certain essential workers became eligible for the vaccine.

Since the waiting list opened up to 50-plus, about 25,000 Delawareans added themselves to the waiting list, which already had an estimated 130,000 seniors registered. About half of the 25,000 new registrations received an invitation last week.

By this Monday, all of the new sign-ups will have received at least one invitation from the state, according to state officials.

Some of the 50 and older population, including Gov. Carney himself, received vaccinations at the state’s clinic at Dover International Speedway this past weekend. An estimated 5,000 essential workers were also vaccinated at the speedway over the weekend after receiving invitations through their employers.

About 8,000 second-dose appointments are scheduled for this weekend at the speedway, as well as another estimated 5,000 essential workers on Friday. Invitations for slots at the speedway Saturday and next Tuesday are being sent out to those on the state’s waiting list.

The clinic at Dover International Speedway will run for another month, said A.J. Schall, the director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, as the track needs to prepare for the NASCAR race in mid-May. The site will not return after race weekend and the state will shift to smaller, community-based events modeled after its COVID-19 testing program.

“I think the speedway has been a great partner and a great location to get us through the first 12 weeks of the vaccination process and getting us through the month of April,” Mr. Schall said. “After that, I think we’re going to build on our successes with what we did with testing with some smaller events which are drive-through in nature and more mobile. We’re working on building that up to get into the community a little closer to where the need is.”

Delaware has administered 449,293 doses of the vaccine as of Monday at 11:59 p.m., according to data from the state’s immunization information system DelVAX.

A total of 159,328 Delawareans are fully vaccinated, including 149,258 who have received both doses of a two-dose vaccine series and 10,070 who got a one-dose series. An additional 140,781 persons have received their first dose of a two-dose series and are awaiting their second dose.

There have been 446,750 doses of vaccine delivered to Delaware and an additional 104,795 allocated to the state via the Federal Pharmacy Program. The state is reporting 102,252 doses remaining in its inventory.

Gov. Carney said the decision to expand vaccine access came to help maximize all of Delaware’s increasing supply.

“Back in January we could fill up a couple-thousand appointment clinic in an hour or two,” Gov. Carney said. “Now it takes several hours or a day or two and you have to send out 10,000 invites to find 5,000 who would accept the appointment.”