Safety precautions for debate include on-site rapid COVID-19 testing, two Secret Service checkpoints

Chairs set up for the first presidential debate at the Cleveland Clinic.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

To attend the first 2020 presidential debate, audience members must have an invitation, wear a face mask, prove they tested negative for COVID-19, and go through multiple Secret Service security checkpoints.

The debate will be held inside the atrium of the Cleveland Clinic's Samson Pavilion, with chairs blocked off between groups and extra space between rows. Only 80 to 100 people are expected to sit in the audience, NBC News reports, and they all must get tested for COVID-19 at an on-site rapid testing center. Those who test negative are given wristbands, which are necessary for admittance.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.