Craig Mish of SportsGrid first reported Tuesday that the Marlins have "paused" their season after at least 17 confirmed coronavirus cases within the organization.. Major League Baseball said all Marlins games will be postponed through Sunday. Buffalo is scheduled to host the Blue Jays and Marlins for two games beginning August 11.
"Of course I'm concerned," Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Tuesday. "We have received additional guidance from New York State as well as we've provided comments and questions to Major League Baseball. We are waiting to hear back from Major League Baseball and from the Toronto Blue Jays. I think they're worried. They have no interest in having their players and team exposed to a team that has an outbreak. There's no doubt about it."
"New York State has one of the lowest infection rates in all of the United States," Cuomo said. "New York State has a full department of health protocol system in place. We have a testing system in place. I offer to Major League Baseball, if you're having problems playing baseball in other states, come here. We'll set up a health protocol. They could fly their team in on a private aircraft. They could go from an airport to a hotel where they'll be quarantined. We would test everyone. We would get the test results back. They could play ball in our stadium and get on a plane and fly home. We have the ability to do it."
When baseball happens in Buffalo, the Blue Jays and the visiting teams will be quarantined at separate hotels. Erie County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein said she hopes the county will be involved with operations related to quarantine.
"It would just be like anybody else who is in quarantine," Burstein said. "They'd have to stay in their room. Food would have to be delivered outside their door. They wouldn't be able to have people make up their room. They would have towels left at their door. Other team members would have to be escorted to the game. We can operationalize it but we'll need cooperation from the teams and the baseball league and hopefully work together and have good policies and procedures to get this done."
Poloncarz said it's possible to successfully quarantine in a hotel and pointed out examples of local hotels that are dedicated to quarantines.