MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — The University of Wisconsin – Madison is opening one of its student residence halls for temporary housing for healthcare workers at the front of the Coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday night the university's newest residence hall — Dejope Hall — opened for healthcare workers who wanted to stay there for UW Health workers and UnityPoint Health-Meriter.

“This is a wonderful community we live in and it's just amazing how everyone is pulling together through this,” said Shawn Arneson, director of guest services at the UW Hospital.

Dejope Hall is close to UW Hospital. Healthcare workers can stay a night if they need a place to crash or stay longer if they want to prevent exposure to family members at home while they work with Coronavirus patients.

“Healthcare workers they have lives and they have family and loved ones at home and we are all very worried about if we would potentially get sick ourselves, maybe even more importantly whether we would potentially then transmit that virus to our loved ones,” said Dr. Jeff Pothoff with UW Hospital.

The residence hall is for healthy healthcare workers and has 250 rooms for them. The University is prepared to open more residence halls if needed.

“We're excited that we're able to make the best of the situation and be in a position to help right now, that we have these spaces that we're able to make available and do whatever we can to contribute to all the hard work that our healthcare workers are doing right now,” said Brendon Dybdahl, director of marketing and communication for UW-Madison housing.

The University and UW Health started working on opening the hall a couple of weeks ago, getting it ready over the weekend.

Arneson said so far about five or six workers have utilized the room, though he expects that number to grow.

“There's a fear of spreading this disease and so anything that we can do to reduce that fear and keep them safe to the hospital we're happy to do,” Arneson said.

Across the country millions of hotel rooms have opened up in various cities with Coronavirus outbreak for healthcare workers. This is the first university residence hall Arneson knows of doing the same.

Pothoff said healthcare workers like him appreciate the support.

“We know what's being asked of us and we have some really hard days here at the hospital, but knowing that we have this huge cheerleading called the community behind us makes doing this every day a little bit easier,” Pothoff said.

Viterbo University in La Crosse plans on opening one of its residence halls for healthcare workers in the area next week.