There’s also the issue of quarantine space on campus. The university has 450 dorm beds set aside to isolate those who tested positive, but they are going fast.

“We are not at capacity right now but if we increase at the rate we did this week, give us a week and a half we’ll be at full capacity,” Pope told the student leaders.

Alabama officials announced a positivity rate of less than 1 percent among students who were tested during the reentry process. Those numbers have risen significantly.

“Just in the last few days as we’ve tested at Coleman Coliseum and the Student Health Center, we’ve seen the numbers jump up from 1 percent to 4 percent to 5 percent,” Pope said in the meeting with student leaders. “And in one particular case, I think it was Coleman Coliseum (Thursday), actually it might be the Student Health Center, we saw 29 percent of the students who tested were positive.”