Erin Isaac, the spokesperson for the host committee for the Jacksonville convention party, said in an e-mailed memo Monday that “everyone who attends the convention within the perimeter will be screened and the temperature will be verified every day.”
When CNN contacted him Monday night, Isaac repeated that attendees would be tested for Covid-19 and not just receive a simpler health exam.
A party official said the Republican Party will present more information on how the tests and other health protocols will work as the convention approaches.
The schedule is unclear for the Jacksonville portion of the convention, but if Republicans stick to the previously planned itinerary, Trump will give his acceptance speech there at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on August 27, the last day of the convention.
“I think it is too early to know,” Hahn, a member of the White House coronoavirus task force, told CNN’s “State of the Union” Dana Bash. “We will have to see how this unfolds in Florida and across the country.”
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in a statement that, with the event less than two months away, the party “is committed to holding a safe convention that fully complies with current local health regulations at the time. ”
“We are planning to offer health precautions that include, but are not limited to, temperature controls, available PPE, aggressive disinfection protocols, and available COVID-19 testing,” said Ahrens. “We have an excellent working relationship with local leadership in Jacksonville and the state of Florida, and we will continue to coordinate with them in the coming months.”
RNC President Ronna McDaniel previously promised that everyone who would attend the convention would be screened.
“We are going to test everyone,” he said in an interview on Fox News last week. “We are going to have temperature controls, we are going to disinfect.”
Isaac declined to answer questions Monday about what types or brands of tests would be administered, or if attendees would separate while waiting for test results.
The convention will be split between Jacksonville and Charlotte, North Carolina, in a departure from previous conventions, fueled in part by concerns about the host city’s coronavirus.
The announcement that the president would accept the nomination in Jacksonville came after a week-long battle between North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, whose team had been working to keep the convention in Charlotte despite fears of the coronavirus, and Trump, who declined to allow. Health officials caution prevents Republicans from attending a full convention.
Because the party signed a contract to hold the convention in Charlotte, it is required to hold a portion of the meeting in the city of North Carolina. So, at a Republican convention unlike any other in modern history, delegates will officially elect their nominee in one place, while the nominee accepts the nomination hundreds of miles away.
CNN’s Sarah Westwood, Arman Azad, Dan Merica and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
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