BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County officials said they will boost the number of sanitarians at Sunday's Bills game, which will be the first home game fans will have to prove they're fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
On Wednesday afternoon, Erie County officials held a COVID-19 briefing. County Executive Mark Poloncarz and health commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said the county will double the number of sanitarians at Sunday's home game.
They said more than 40 sanitarians will be at the gates, checking vaccination status. Fans 12 years old and older who are not fully vaccinated will be turned away.
Three weeks ago when the Bills played the Texans in Orchard Park, that was the first game fans had to show they were at least partially vaccinated.
"It'll be more than 40 sanitarians who will then have a direct line to an individual who can immediately confirm whether or not someone has ID," Poloncarz said.
The county executive also tied the vaccine mandate to fan behavior saying: "I will note especially with the Houston game, the vaccination status seems to have reduced the rowdiness in the crowd and the nastiness during the Houston game there was not a single arrest of an attendee at the football game, which is the first time that anyone can think about that on record. By having a crowd that walked in there showing their proof that they were vaccinated and what we saw was they're vaccinated it also reduced on the rowdiness and probably kept out some of the knuckleheads that would normally have acted differently."
As a reminder, photos of vaccine cards are not accepted, you can use the State's Excelsior Pass or a digital vaccine card. Children under the age of 12 have to wear masks.
We've received comments from fans that many of them are getting into home games with fake vaccine cards. A question was asked at the briefing specifically about fans using fake cards to get into the game and if there would be a crackdown.
"Well, it's illegal if someone comes in with a fake vaccination card, it's illegal and we are spot checking random amounts we can't go through every single person that comes in, but if we find someone with an illegal card we'll prosecute you," Poloncarz said.
It has been more than a week since the Bills Monday night game in Tennessee — 2 On Your Side asked the county whether they're seeing any community spread locally from fans who traveled.
"I don't know the answer to that question," Poloncarz said, "It may still be a little early, but usually we find in the 7 to 10 days thereafter, so we should be getting that period, I was getting data with regards to the number of cases associated with direct Bills games at the stadium, which we know dropped dramatically once we had the vaccination status in place."
But, when we asked the county health department for numbers on COVID cases directly tied to Bills home games, a county spokesperson tells me the county does not have a full picture on fans who attended while infectious and that there have been no COVID outbreaks at Bills home games.
As for the latest COVID-19 data, county officials say they're mostly seeing COVID-19 spread among those who are between the ages of 30 to 39, followed by school-aged children 10 years and older.
Burstein once again urged people who are eligible to get vaccinated and that college students who are fully vaccinated should get a booster shot if they're eligible.