WASHINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- At least five U.S. Republican senators have announced that they will not attend the Republican National Convention in late August, local media reported Tuesday.
Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski will not attend the GOP convention next month in Florida, aides for each of the senators confirmed to The Hill.
An aide for Collins said that the senator was never planning to attend this year's convention because she does not go when she herself is up for reelection, according to a report by The Hill. It's not clear whether the other two senators' decisions were related to the coronavirus.
Senator Lamar Alexander, who is retiring at the end of this year, also announced on Tuesday that he would not attend, with his office saying he was saving delegate spots for people who had not previously gone to a party convention.
Chuck Grassley, the oldest Republican senator, on Monday became the first to formally say he would skip the gathering because of the coronavirus.
Anthony Fauci, the U.S. top infectious diseases expert, warned on Monday that the country is "still knee-deep in the first wave" of the pandemic and the U.S. handling of the outbreak is "really not good."
Almost 3 million people have contracted the virus, with more than 131,000 deaths, in the country as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Enditem
