On Tuesday, SIGNAL IDUNA PARK became the most beautiful vaccination centre in the world. BVB team doctor Lars Lippelt is calling on the club's fans to get vaccinated and reveals in an interview how high the vaccination rate is within the team.

You're currently in training camp in Switzerland with the team, but you would have been willing to stay at home in Dortmund this year. Why?

"The course of action taken by BVB, the city of Dortmund and the KVWL to open a vaccination centre in the stadium with the opportunity to take a photo with the DFB-Pokal trophy afterwards is fantastic. We have to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate. I want to help with that in every way and would therefore have been glad to stay at home and carry out vaccinations there.''

So you would have done injections yourself?

"Absolutely. In my practice we vaccinate a lot of people, at BVB we vaccinate the players and the staff. It makes no difference to me. The main thing is that we vaccinate and achieve the highest possible vaccination rate."

The service in the stadium is intended for everyone, including fans of other clubs and people who aren't interested in football. There are also drop-in sessions available. Is this the right approach?

''It's the only right one, yes. We only have one chance as a society to avoid a fourth wave or another lockdown in autumn. We have to use the time we have now and vaccinate as many people as possible. That means getting double or fully vaccinated, because we're currently seeing that the Delta variant can cause serious symptoms and lead to infections in people that are single vaccinated.''

In the midst of all this, it seems the willingness to get vaccinated is declining? Is carelessness setting in? 

''This is something I see in my practice. There are a lot of people who aren't attending their second vaccination appointment. The low infection rates are maybe leading people to think: 'Things aren't so bad, I'll wait it out.' But that's very dangerous, and we have to make sure we get fully vaccinated, otherwise we won't get this right. It's a race against time, and we run the risk of having high case numbers again in autumn, which would mean politicians would have to reintroduce measures to control the spread of the virus.''

Have the BVB players and coaches been vaccinated?

''The vast majority of them are vaccinated, which I'm very happy about. At the start we were of course bound by the priority system, which we were very strict in adhering to. We didn't vaccinate anyone in advance who wasn't prioritised, which meant we weren't able to start vaccinating until the beginning of June. Many players were still on holiday around then, but some of them got vaccinated while on holiday or came back from holiday to be vaccinated by me. A high 90% of the players have been vaccinated for the first time, and many have already had their second vaccination. We are doing even better with the coaches and support staff - 100% of them have had their first vaccination. Most of the coaches that work with the team have already been double vaccinated.''

Can we summarise it like this: despite low case numbers and a relatively high vaccination rate, it remains a race against time to achieve herd immunity and prevent a fourth wave in autumn with new restrictions?

''That's how it is. We had similarly low case rates last summer, then the numbers shot up again in autumn. But now we have an excellent weapon against the virus in the form of vaccinations, they protect us well. We're seeing that in care and elderly homes, where very few people are falling seriously ill. But we have to use this weapon, and it is all the more effective the more people get vaccinated.''