Trump, Biden will be tested for COVID-19 ahead of debate and mask rules will be enforced

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will both be tested for coronavirus before their final debate at Belmont University in Nashville on Thursday, and all audience members will be required to wear masks throughout the event, according to an official from the Commission on Presidential Debates.

These assurances, provided Tuesday in an interview with The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, stand in stark contrast to the prior actions of Trump and the first family, who ignored a mask requirement at the first debate in September and inflamed confusion about if the president was tested beforehand.

Peter Eyre, senior advisor for the Commission, said the focus of the upcoming debates was “the tens millions of people who will be watching from around the world,” but the event will still have a small audience of about 200 people consisting of journalists, officials from the Commission and Belmont University, health safety workers and guests invited by each candidate, including family members.

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These guests will be tested before the debate and must adhere to a “variety of other COVID countermeasures,” including mandated social distancing and masks, Eyre said.

“Masks will be required and there will be enforcement of the mask rule,” Eyre said. “That was done at the vice-presidential debate as well.”

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden debate in September at Case Western University in Cleveland.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden debate in September at Case Western University in Cleveland.

But it was not done at the first presidential debate. At the first debate, held in Cleveland on Sept. 29, members of the Trump family entered the debate hall wearing masks but removed them once the event began. CNN reported that a doctor offered them masks but they did not appear to accept.

Eyre declined to discuss how the commission planned to handle a similar scenario at the Belmont debate, but reiterated that the mask requirement “will be enforced.”

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Eyre also insisted the candidates themselves will be tested before the debate. There has been a great deal of confusion about if this occurred before the first debate.

President Donald Trump tested positive for the virus two days later, and Fox News journalist Chris Wallace, the moderator of the first debate, said the president did not arrive in Cleveland in time to be tested before the debate. Trump has evaded the question, claiming last week that he did not remember if he was tested.

“Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t,” Trump said during a town hall televised on NBC.

Eyre said both candidates were tested before the first debate and there “will be a similar regime in place” for the debate at Belmont. As of Tuesday, some testing protocols were still being finalized, he said.

More information about precautions – like the distance between candidates and whether there will be a protective barrier on stage – is expected on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. Debate organizers have partnered with HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital company in the nation, to prevent the spread of the virus at the event.

Dr. Jonathan Perlin, chief medical officer of HCA Healthcare, said during a news conference last week that HCA medical professionals volunteered hundreds of hours “in support of the health needs of well over 1,000 individuals associated with staging this historic event.”

Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Debate commission: Trump and Biden will be tested for COVID-19