Donald Trump has said he would no longer be holding a large gathering in Florida next month to accept the Republican Party’s presidential nomination after a spike in coronavirus cases in the state.
“The timing for this event is not right,” Trump said in a White House press briefing. “It’s just not right with what’s happened recently, the flare up in Florida. To have a big convention it’s not the right time.”
The convention, initially slated to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, had been moved to Jacksonville, Florida, after North Carolina’s governor refused to guarantee Trump could hold a large event in the state.
Republican delegates would still be meeting in Charlotte, the original venue for the convention, on the week beginning August 24, Trump said.
He added he would still give a convention speech but “in a different form” and said there were plans for so-called “telerallies” during the week.
Trump said he had already informed Florida’s governor of the decision, which comes as the United States grapples with large numbers of new Covid-19 cases outside of the north east of the country, the region hit hardest in the early months of the outbreak.
Florida is now among the states with the highest number of new coronavirus cases and has seen more nearly 390,000 cases of the virus and more than 5,600 deaths.