Cuomo: Limited number of fans will be allowed to attend Bills playoff game

NEW YORK - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that a few thousand fans would be in attendance for the Buffalo Bills' upcoming playoff game.

Roughly 6,700 socially-distanced, mask-wearing fans will be allowed to watch the game in person, and all attendees will be tested before the game. Anyone not wearing a mask would be ejected from the game.

Cuomo, who had sent health department staff to study COVID-19 protocols at stadiums in other states, defended his administration's efforts to allow fans at the game at a time when more then 11,000 New Yorkers a day are testing positive for COVID-19.

He said the pilot program could be a model for re-opening businesses with rapid testing, which his budget director Robert Mujica said will be conducted in the three days before the game. Cuomo is directing his department of health to contact trace all 6,700 fans following the game.

"We can't keep the economy closed until the vaccinations hit critical mass," Cuomo said. "We can't take six months, nine months, 12 months of a closed-down economy."

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker previously said he was looking into how to address the potential for a post-game surge because of fans gathering before and after the game.

Zucker and Cuomo urged all fans Wednesday to not hold and attend tailgates, parties and other large gatherings.

The team, on its website, said tickets will be offered to club seat and season ticket holders, based on seniority, and likely not the general public. Fans will have to pay the $63 cost of testing. The game will be played on Jan. 9 or 10.

The Bills have clinched their first AFC East title since 1995. They will host a playoff game for the first time since a 30-27 wild-card playoff loss to Jacksonville on Dec. 28, 1996, in what proved to be Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s final game.

The news comes as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the state and across the nation. Cuomo announced that the statewide positivity rate had reached 8.66% based on the latest data, with nearly 8,000 New Yorkers hospitalized by COVID-19 and another 144 deaths reported statewide.

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Cuomo also said that he believes the variant of the coronavirus originally found in the United Kingdom and recently discovered in Colorado and California is already in New York, and urged New Yorkers to be careful and smart for their New Year's celebrations.

With the Associated Press.