By Peter Sblendorio

New York Daily News

The Country Music Association said it adhered to “strict” COVID-19 protocols at last month’s CMA Awards after multiple singers questioned whether Charley Pride could have contracted the virus at the ceremony.

Pride, who died Saturday at age 86, performed at the CMAs on Nov. 11 and was given a lifetime achievement award during the ceremony at Nashville’s Music City Center.

“Everyone affiliated with the CMA Awards followed strict testing protocols outlined by the city health department and unions,” reads a statement released Saturday on behalf of the CMA and Pride’s reps.

“Charley was tested prior to traveling to Nashville,” the statement continued. “He was tested upon landing in Nashville, and again on show day, with all tests coming back negative. After returning to Texas following the CMA Awards, Charley again tested negative multiple times.”

A representative said Saturday that Pride died in hospice care in Dallas following a battle with coronavirus.

Country star Maren Morris referenced the CMAs in a since-deleted tweet, according to Deadline.

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions because no family statement has been made,” Morris reportedly wrote. “But if this was a result of the CMAs being indoors, we should all be outraged. Rest in power, Charley.”

Another artist, Mickey Guyton, replied to Morris that she “thought the same damn thing.”

“We need answers as to how Charley Pride got covid,” Guyton wrote in a separate tweet.

In a tribute Saturday, the CMA celebrated Pride as the country music genre’s “first Black superstar.”

In its statement addressing the award show controversy, the organization wrote, “All of us in the Country Music community are heartbroken by Charley’s passing. Out of respect for his family during their grieving period, we will not be commenting on this further.”