MADISON, Wis. – Three days after pausing all activities for seven days, and canceling this afternoon’s game against Nebraska, the University of Wisconsin football team continues to see an uptick in cases.

Speaking to ESPN’s College GameDay, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez said the program is up 22 cases (12 players and 10 staff), an increase of seven cases from the update the program gave on Thursday.

“We’re still having additions in our cases and that’s something we’ve got to get our arms around and control,” Alvarez said.

Head coach Paul Chryst has been the only confirmed case by the university, but offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph and quarterbacks Graham Mertz and Chase Wolf also have the virus through sourced reporting. Wisconsin fell into the “orange/red” designation of the Big Ten protocol which required enhanced preventative measures but not an automatic cancelation of practices and games. No word on if UW’s increase positive tests has put them into the “red/red” category.

Wisconsin is slated to return to practices on Wednesday and will have just three days of on-field practices before its scheduled to play its November 7 game against Purdue.

Asked about the status of that game, Alvarez said he will have an answer how to proceed by early next week.

“We’ll take a look at where we are, where our positive testing is and make a decision on Tuesday,” Alvarez said.

The state of Wisconsin reported 5,096 new COVID-19 cases Friday, the second highest total of the ongoing pandemic, and 24 deaths. The state has seen an average of 4,230 cases and 32 deaths over the last seven days.

Since Thursday’s update, the Wisconsin football program has had two additional staff members and five additional student-athlete register confirmed positive PCR tests for COVID-19. There are currently 22 active COVID-19 cases in the program, all since Saturday, Oct. 24. Those active cases include 12 student-athletes and 10 staff members.

Additionally, after further consultation and clarification from officials at Public Health Madison & Dane County, Coach Chryst was informed that the earliest he would be able to return to work, should he remain symptom-free, is on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Wisconsin Athletics plans to provide further updates on Tuesday, Nov. 3.