Despite repeated requests from the Democratic mayor of Houston, the Republican Party of Texas intends to maintain its convention in person next week in the metropolis, which has become the focus of contamination of the pandemic.
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The event scheduled for July 16-18 is to take place in an indoor convention center and could accommodate approximately 6000 people. " The local convention of a political party is a fundamental exercise of the freedom to assemble peacefully, " Republican Party of Texas (RPT) president James Dickey said in a statement on Monday.
" This need to meet is important, and we take all the necessary precautions to ensure that it is done safely, " added the support of US President Donald Trump, enumerating sanitary measures: distribution of masks, temperature verification at the entry and installation of disinfecting stations.
37,776 cases of Covid-19 detected in Houston
Democratic Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner earlier today sent a letter to the RPT to defend the transition to an online convention, which "would protect the health and possibly the lives " of participants and workers at the event center. " I do not think it is wise or prudent to hold in person a convention of 6000 people or more at the moment ," insisted Sylvester Turner at a press conference on Monday, urging the sponsors of the convention to cancel their support for the event.
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The mayor of Houston also announced that he would dispatch health inspectors to the convention to enforce health rules, threatening to end the event if the guidelines were not followed. The metropolis of the southeast of the United States has become since June a epidemic center. On Tuesday, Houston reached a total of 37,776 cases of Covid-19 detected since the start of the pandemic.
Last Thursday, Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott announced that he would wear a mask in public places, a controversial move within the party of Donald Trump. Last Wednesday on the set of the conservative Fox News channel, Greg Abbott's assistant, Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick still rejected the advice of the director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, declaring " that he did not know what he was talking about ".
The Republican Party's national convention is slated to be held in Florida next month. Two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Lamar Alexander, have already announced that they will not participate because of the risk of spreading the Covid-19.