(WXYZ) — Big Ten Football has been back for one week but Wisconsin Football announced Wednesday that it has canceled Saturday's game and paused team activities due to positive COVID-19 tests.
According to the program, all team-related activities will be paused for at least seven days due to an increase in COVID-19 cases within the program.
The university said that 12 people within the program have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past five days, including Head Coach Paul Chryst. Six student athletes are among those positive cases.
"We have said from the beginning that the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff members comes first," Athletic Director Barry Alvarez said. "Over the past several days we have seen a rising number of student-athletes and staff contract the virus. The responsible thing for us to do is to pause football-related activities for at least seven days."
"This morning I received the news that I had tested positive via a PCR test I took yesterday," Chryst said. "I informed my staff and the team this morning and am currently isolating at home. I had not been experiencing any symptoms and feel good as of this morning.
"I am disappointed for our players and coaching staff who put so much into preparing to play each week. But the safety of everyone in our program has to be our top priority and I support the decision made to pause our team activities."
