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 has stood by and pushed the Trump campaign message of "law and order" and has remained a vigorous defender of police. In an interview with ABC News Live Anchor Linsey Davis, Pence said that he and Trump "reject the notion from Joe Biden and others that there's an 'implicit bias' towards minorities in law enforcement."

"The president and I know we don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement and supporting all of the families that live in our major cities," Pence told a crowd of supporters in Lititz, Pennsylvania. "We have done both for the last three and a half years, and we're going to support law enforcement and support our African American and minority families for four more years in the White House."

The vice president has dismissed the "defund the police" movement and has called for more resources and better training and accountability in law enforcement.

On matters of racial discrimination in policing and use of force, Harris has called for the rooting out of racial discrimination. In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing while in police custody she participated in protests in Washington, D.C.

During an appearance on ABC's "The View" in June, Harris was asked by co-host Meghan McCain if she supports the "Defund the Police" slogan, but did not give a direct answer on where she stands.

"We need to re-imagine how we are achieving public safety in America. And to have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing but yet there's a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation. Come on. We have to be honest about this that there isn't a consensus around this because if there were, we would actually see a smarter distribution of resources in our country to address the issues that need to be addressed."

After the shooting by police of Jacob Blake, she met with Blake's family in Wisconsin and spoke with Blake over the phone. She also told NBC News, "I think that there should be a thorough investigation, and based on what I've seen, it seems that the officer should be charged." She's also kept in contact with Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor who was shot by Louisvill, Kentucky, police while she was sleeping in her home.

Harris has called for economic and educational investment in communities of color to create safer, healthier communities. She and Biden have called for an end to no-knock warrants, chokeholds and carotid holds. They want to create a national excessive force standard and create a database to track cops who use excessive force and break the rules. The pair want to end cash bail and private prisons.

"We have to understand that you can't think that the only way to create safe communities is to put more police on the streets, that's not how it's going to work," Harris told pop star Lizzo on an Instagram Live stream in September.

In contrast, Harris wrote in her 2009 book "Smart on Crime," "if we take a show of hands of those who would like to see more police officers on the street, mine would shoot up."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Averi Harper