Hundreds of walk-in NHS Covid-19 vaccination sites will be operating this weekend with any adult able to turn up and ‘grab a jab’.

NHS England has said that anyone aged 18 or over can turn up at the sites, which include football stadiums, theatres, supermarket car parks and shopping centres, and get vaccinated without needing to book in advance.

The NHS will publicise the sites locally so that people can opt to get jabbed on a trip to the shops or on the way somewhere else. Sports grounds including the home of Newcastle Eagles Basketball, Watford’s Vicarage Road, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Edgbaston cricket ground will join roving vaccination buses in Dudley, Colchester, Ipswich and others, backed up by teams of community outreach vaccinators, to reach as many people as possible.

A new online service enabling people to simply enter their postcode and find their nearest walk-in site is being set up and text messages will be sent to people living nearby who have not had their first dose.

Jab buses will also be out on the road, and visits to housebound people are also planned, as the NHS gears up for a weekend of activity to drive uptake.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “With more than 63 million jabs already delivered by the NHS in England, we’re now in a race to the finish line. It’s now easier than ever to get your life-saving jab, and the more of us who are vaccinated the safer and freer we all will be. So this weekend why not join millions of others and ‘GrabAJab’ to take advantage of this life-saving protection.”