In response to COVID-19 concerns from Kamala Harris’ team, the Commission on Presidential debates has agreed to add additional safety precautions at the debate.

Vice President Mike Pence and Harris will be seated 12-feet and 3-inches away from each other and from the debate moderator, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. As was the case at the presidential debate, there will be no handshakes between the candidates, and while the Commission said there would also be plexiglass separating Harris, Pence and Page, the Pence campaign has objected to using it.

A senior administration official in Pence’s office told ABC News Tuesday that there had been no formal agreement about the plexiglass and that while Harris and Page could use it, Pence doesn’t want to.

In a statement to ABC News, Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller said, "If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it."

Though Harris, Pence and Page will not wear masks on stage, everyone else in the debate hall will be required to wear one. Anyone who takes their mask off will be escorted out, according to the rules.

During the presidential debate in Cleveland, members of the Trump family were seen sitting in the audience without masks, even after being asked to put them on.

Harris and Pence will be tested prior to the debate, according to the Commission, which is a change from the presidential debate when the campaigns were responsible for testing their candidates and traveling parties.

“They’ve got to wear a mask, and if they take their mask off they're gonna be escorted out, and I don't care who they are, they'll be escorted out,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, in an interview with ABC News.

The vice president has tested negative each day since Friday, and his White House physician has cleared him from having to quarantine, citing that he is not a “close contact” with anyone who’s tested positive, including Trump.

But Pence was present at the Rose Garden ceremony on Sept. 26 when Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Eleven of the attendees have since tested positive for COVID-19. He was also in the Oval Office with Trump the morning of his debate, just days before the president tested positive.

Harris tested negative for COVID-19 Monday after being screened in Salt Lake City, where she has been gearing up for the debate, according to an aide.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Averi Harper

Pence will get the first question at Wednesday’s vice presidential debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Tuesday evening, along with a few more details of what viewers can expect.

Pence will be seated stage left. Harris will be seated stage right.

The candidates will be socially distanced with 12 feet and three inches of space between the center of one chair and the center of the other chair.

Similar to last week’s presidential debate, there will be no opening or closing statements.

Unlike last week, nine 10-minute pods of discussion will fill the 90-minute debate. Each pod will start with a question. The first candidate will get two minutes to answer. The second candidate will then get two minutes. After that, there will be six minutes of discussion.

-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein

In the days since President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took the stage for their first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, last week, the coronavirus has become even more of a central campaign issue than ever as the vice presidential candidates prepare for their only debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, Wednesday night.

The way the Trump administration has handled the pandemic is likely to be central to the debate as the White House deals with a cluster of COVID-19 cases, including the infection of Trump himself, amid a campaign and administration that have downplayed the virus and flouted the advice of health experts.

On Wednesday night, Trump's stance on masks, his decision to restart large campaign rallies that pack thousands together with no opportunity to socially distance and his admission to Bob Woodward that he downplayed the severity of the coronavirus will likely be brought up, with the spate of White House coronavirus cases giving Harris new ammunition to claim the administration hasn't taken the pandemic seriously enough.

Pence may also be asked to answer for Trump's words, comparing COVID-19 to the flu as recently as Tuesday and previously saying the virus would just "disappear."

Harris has previously said Trump has shown "a reckless disregard for the wellbeing of the American people" by failing to contain the outbreak and is likely to continue that line of attack.

"Even now, some eight months into this crisis, Donald Trump still won’t take responsibility. He still won’t act," Harris said in a speech on Aug. 27.

Pence will likely defend Trump by saying he ordered the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE), sent ventilators to states and shut down travel from China as evidence he sprung into action early on. He may use Trump's short hospital stay as evidence of the progress made with regard to therapeutic drugs and to boost the president's position that Americans shouldn't let coronavirus "dominate" their lives.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Averi Harper

In light of President Trump's positive COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent concerns from Harris' team, the Commission on Presidential Debates agreed to add additional safety precautions to Wednesday's debate at the University of Utah.

Unlike last week's presidential debate, everyone in the audience will be required to wear a face mask or covering and those who don't will be escorted out of the venue.

"They've got to wear a mask, and if they take their mask off they're gonna be escorted out, and I don't care who they are, they'll be escorted out," Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, told ABC News.

Harris and Pence will be tested prior to the debate, according to the commission, a change from the presidential debate when campaigns were responsible for testing their candidates and traveling parties.

And the candidates will be separated by more than just the issues -- or at least one of them will be.

After Pence's close proximity to others who have tested positive for COVID-19, the Harris campaign requested plexiglass barriers be used at the debate and the commission agreed -- but the Pence campaign said Tuesday that they never agreed to a plexiglass partition.

A senior administration official in Pence's office told ABC News Tuesday that the CPD decided to publicize the new safety protocols before any formal agreement was made and that the moderator and the Harris campaign can do as they want, "but we do not."

The official said Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend plexiglass whenever 6 feet of separation isn't possible, but noted the candidates will be 12-feet apart on stage. The comment fell in line with Pence's chief of staff Marc Short who told The Washington Post Tuesday that plexiglass is "not needed."

Pence's communications director, Katie Miller, who tested positive for COVID-19 in May, also responded to the request in a statement to Axios earlier this week saying, "If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it."

Following news that Miller's husband, senior Trump aide Stephen Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus, she reportedly left Utah and a spokesperson declined to comment if Pence would agree to plexiglass.

-ABC News Justin Gomez, Averi Harper and Ben Gittleson

Pence pivoted from a question on pre-existing conditions to press Harris for an answer on whether or not she and Biden supported adding additional seats to the Supreme Court.

"I think the American people would really like to know, if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States, are you and Joe Biden, if somehow you win this election, going to pack the Supreme Court to get your way?" the vice president asked.

Harris used her first answer to attack the Trump administration for rushing a vote on Barrett's nomination by bringing up a Republican the president often compares himself to -- Abraham Lincoln.

"It was 27 days before the election, and a seat became open on the United States court. Abraham Lincoln's party was in charge of not only the White House but the Senate," she said, referring to the 1864 election.

"But Honest Abe said it's not the right thing to do," Harris added. "The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States, and then that person can select who will serve for a lifetime on the highest court of our land. And so, Joe and I are very clear: the American people are voting right now, and it should be their decision about who will serve on this most important body for a lifetime."

MORE: Most say wait on Ginsburg seat, while opposing packing the court: Poll

Pence used her non-answer to say that Biden and Harris would pack the Supreme Court and that he and Trump would protect the current number of justices on the court. 
"The American people deserve a straight answer," he said. "And if you have not figured it out yet, the straight answer is they are going to pack the Supreme Court, if they somehow win this election.

Harris responded that Republican efforts to get more conservatives confirmed as federal judges amounted to packing the court, noting that of the 50 people the president nominated to the Court of Appeals none were Black. She did not state her position on adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court.