Monday evening Arizona decided to halt its reentry plan for student-athletes amid surging COVID-19 cases in Pima County, the school said in a statement. The athletic department's reentry plan began two weeks ago with the first group of football players beginning voluntary workouts, and the plan had been set to run through the start of the fall semester in August with other sports arriving on campus in waves over the next several weeks.

So far Arizona says that it has had just one positive result among 83 tests for COVID-19 throughout the athletic department, but “out of an abundance of caution" the program has decided to pause the process preventing any more athletes from returning to campus at this stage. Voluntary workouts will also be on hold for the time being.

The final group of football players had been set to arrive this week and begin voluntary workouts next Monday.

"We have made this decision with campus and community partners to pause our re-entry process,” Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke said. “The health, safety and wellbeing of all members of our community is our number one priority. We will continue to work in conjunction with campus partners and our local government agencies to support and evaluate a safe and healthy return to campus.”

The athletic department says it will seek guidance from local and state authorities as it decides whether or not to move ahead at a later time with voluntary workouts.

“Our mission has always been, first and foremost, the safety of our student-athletes, staff and community,” said Dr. Stephen Paul of C.AT.S. Medical Services. “Health and safety continue to be the guiding force in our re-entry process. We will continue to monitor the status and impact of COVID-19 in our community and our ongoing and safe training of student-athletes already on campus. Arizona Athletics will assess when to resume its re-entry process in collaboration with the guidelines and protocols of the University of Arizona, Pac-12 Conference, NCAA, and state and local government agencies.”

The announcement by Arizona comes on the same day that Gov. Doug Ducey announced that he would be ordering the shutdown of bars, gyms, movie theaters and water parks for the next 30 days to help curb the surge in the state. Public schools will also have to delay the start of the new school year until Aug. 17 if they plan on holding in-person classes. There will also be restrictions on large gatherings as a result of the new order.

UA’s reentry plan had called for other fall sports to begin arriving on campus in the coming weeks with fall sports such as women’s soccer and women’s volleyball set to begin workouts on July 13. The men’s and women’s basketball teams had been scheduled to begin their portion of summer workouts starting on July 27.

Arizona’s season-opening football game against Hawaii at Arizona Stadium remains scheduled for Aug. 29.

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