The Wisconsin football program now has 16 active cases of COVID-19 after two additional staff members and one student-athlete tested positive since late Wednesday.
The Badgers announced they were pausing all football activities for seven days on Wednesday due to the outbreak and cancelled their game against Nebraska on Saturday. The team has now had 15 positive tests since Oct. 24 and is focused on stopping the spread of the virus.
The athletic department has secured rooms at a local hotel for football players who have not tested positive to try to further separate those players and mitigate the spread of the virus. According to the school, each of those players has his own room and the rooms are all located in the same area of the hotel to limit exposure to others.
The positive tests recently received include those of head coach Paul Chryst and quarterback Graham Mertz, however athletic director Barry Alvarez received a negative PCR test on Thursday.
Because Chryst tested positive, he is required to isolate for 10 days and will be able to return to the team in person on Nov. 7 at the earliest. That, coincidentally, is the date Wisconsin is scheduled to play Purdue.
There is no definitive timeline for the team to return to in-person football activities, but the earliest it could happen is Wednesday, which means there is not yet a definitive decision on whether or not the team will play the game against Purdue.