NHS England has launched a new online service that lets people find their nearest walk-in coronavirus vaccination centre by simply entering their postcode.

The NHS has opened hundreds of sites where anyone aged 18 or over can turn up to get vaccinated without an appointment over the weekend and is urging anyone who has not received one to ‘grab a jab’.

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.

Vaccine buses will also be out on the road, and visits to housebound people are planned, as the NHS gears up for a mammoth weekend of activity to protect the nation.

Text messages will also be sent to people living nearby who have not had their first dose. Three million texts have been sent to let people know about local walk-in services – more than twice as many as the NHS has sent before in one day.

Second jabs are also available at many of the walk-in centres, if it has been at least eight weeks since the first dose.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS 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, and with this new online service, it is easier than ever to find a convenient place to get your vaccine. With every jab given, we are one step closer to our summer freedoms”.

Four in five adults have now received their first dose of the jab, with three in five already fully vaccinated after receiving two doses.