Now five Republican senators avoid Republican National Convention and Trump admits party might have to be 'flexible' amid coronavirus surge

• Five Republican senators will avoid Republican National Convention in August
• Senators Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined Chuck Grassley and Lamar Alexander in saying they won't attend
• Meanwhile President Trump said party would have to be 'flexible' as Florida appears to be the new epicenter in the coronavirus pandemic 
• 'It really depends on the timing,' he told Greta Van Susteren for her show 'Full Court Press.' 'We can do a lot of things, but we're very flexible'

Five Republican senators will avoid the party's convention this August as President Donald Trump admitted the GOP will have to 'flexible' on the gathering as coronavirus cases spike in Florida.

Trump pushed to have the convention moved from Charlotte, North Carolina, to a state further along in the opening process so he could have the large crowd he wanted to cheer him on as he accepted the party's nomination for a second term.

But his plan for thousands of supporters screaming his name looks to be in danger as coronavirus cases rise around the nation, with more than 3 million Americans infected, and some of the biggest increases coming in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona - which were early embracers of the reopening process.

Trump admitted the plans for the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville will have to be 'flexible' as Florida looks to become the new epicenter for the pandemic.

'When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good. And now all of a sudden it's spiking up a little bit and that's going to go down. It really depends on the timing,' he told Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday for her show 'Full Court Press.' 'We can do a lot of things, but we're very flexible.' 

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President Donald Trump said the party will have to be 'flexible' about the Republican National Convention

Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine said they would not attend the Republican National Convention this August

Florida has walked back its reopening process as it has seen more than 200,000 cases within its borders. On Tuesday, the state reported 7,347 new cases over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 213,773. And Jacksonville now has a mandatory face mask requirement for both indoors and outdoors.

Additionally, three more Republican senators announced they would not attend the convention, bringing the total to five with more lawmakers possibly joining them.

Republican senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine said they would not be in Jacksonville in August. 

All three have clashed with President Trump at various points on a variety of issues. Romney voted for one of the impeachment charges against Trump and Murkowski has criticized the president's handling of race relations. Collins is in a tough re-election campaign.  

They joined senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, 86, who announced on Monday he would not attend the convention out of concerns for the coronavirus. 

'I'm not going to go. And I'm not going to go because of the virus situation,' he said, according to the Des Moines Register.

Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, 80, also said he wouldn't be going. His office said on Tuesday he 'believes the delegate spots should be reserved for those who have not had that privilege before as he has had.'

Alexander is retiring from the Senate when his term is up this year. In May, he self quarantined after a staffer tested positive for COVID-19.

The party plans daily coronavirus tests for every person attending the convention.

That will result in thousands of daily tests and it's unclear how they would be carried out and how any positive results would be handled. 

The arena where President Trump will formally accept the nomination seats 15,000 people. Then there are vendors, security staff, and media who work in the surrounding area.

Typically a host city sees an influx of 40,000 to 50,000 people during a political convention when delegates, supporters, security, media, protesters and other visitors are factored in. It's unclear how the coronavirus pandemic will affect those numbers. 

Republican Gov. Rick DeSantis of Florida, a close Trump ally, didn't answer questions at his press conference on Tuesday on whether he would lift the capacity restrictions for the arena where the convention will take place, which would limit the crowd to half - to 7,500.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, a Republican, said there was time for the restrictions to be changed.

'I would just remind people that the convention is many, many weeks away, in late August,' Curry said at a press conference on Tuesday. 'We are currently under a statewide executive order by the governor. Facilities cannot participate in anything over 50% capacity. That's where we are right now.'

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Every person attending President Donald Trump's Republican National Convention in Jacksonville this August will be tested daily for the coronavirus

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The VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville where President Donald Trump will give his convention speech can hold up to 15,000

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A health care worker administers COVID-19 tests in Homestead, Fla.

Erin Isaac, the spokeswoman for the Jacksonville host committee, revealed in a memo on Monday that 'everyone attending the convention within the perimeter will be tested and temperature checked each day,' according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the email.

And a party official said details on how those thousands of tests will be carried out will be revealed as the August 24 start date gets closer. Some rapid tests - such as the Abbott test the White House uses to test those who will have contact with the president - can give results in 15 minutes. 

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said last week that testing would be conducted on the delegates.

'We're going to test everybody,' she said during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends.' 'We're going to have temperature checks, we're going to sanitize. We can do this in a safe way and not let politics get in the way.'

No official schedule has been announced yet for the GOP convention, which will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida.

But Trump is expected to give his acceptance speech at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville on August 27, which is the last day of the convention. 

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Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, 80, became the second GOP senator to say he won't attend the Republican National Convention in August

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Senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said he won't be attending the party's nominating convention for President Donald Trump this August because of coronavirus

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Senator Grassley has attended every Republican convention since he was elected to the Senate in 1980 including the 2016 one (above) in Cleveland where Donald Trump accepted the party's presidential nomination

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Senator Grassley is the first Republican member of Congress to announce he won't go to Jacksonville, Fla., to see President Trump accept the party's nomination as he did above in 2016

Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said it was too early to tell if the spiking numbers in Florida made it unsafe to host the convention.

'I think it's too early to tell,' he told CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday. 'We will have to see how this unfolds in Florida and elsewhere around the country.'   

The party moved the main part of the convention to Florida after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, could not guarantee the large crowd the president wanted in the original location of Charlotte. 

Trump wants to see a convention hall packed with cheering supporters, which Florida officials believed they could deliver.  

Florida has the steepest and most alarming rise in cases in the United States. 

In two weeks, the number of total infections there has doubled from 100,000 to more than 200,000 as of Tuesday.

Hospitalizations across Florida have also been ticking upward, with nearly 1,700 patients admitted in the past seven days compared with 1,200 the previous week. Five hospitals in the St. Petersburg area were out of intensive care unit beds, officials said. Miami's Baptist Hospital had only four of its 88 ICU beds available.  

Miami has essentially returned to a lock down state, shutting down its beaches and closing restaurants and gyms.  

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Coronavirus infections are now on the rise in 40 states across the US. The US has seen a 27 percent increase in new COVID-19 cases in the last week compared to the previous seven days. New cases per day nationwide have hit record levels of well over 50,000

Florida set yet another record high number of daily infections on Saturday (right) but, curiously, corresponding increases in the number of deaths have not yet emerged, even though cases have been rising steadily for more than two weeks 

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Cars are seen as the drivers wait to be tested for COVID-19 at a testing sight in Miami Gardens, Florida

DeSantis said at a press briefing on Monday that the average of a person testing positive for the virus was 21. He argued that meant there would be lower death rates from the disease. 

He also said he would not issue a statewide mandate to wear a mask or shut down popular tourist attractions like Disney World.

'I think that where you start to see the spread is in social situations where people let their guard down,' DeSantis said. 'Usually at like a private party or something like that.'