Arizona Western College officials announced today that a presumptive positive case of COVID-19 in Yuma County has been identified as an AWC student during the Spring 2020 semester.
AWC officials said the student remains isolated at home and in "good spirits." The faculty was notified and confirmed the student hadn't been back to class since coming down with the virus on March 14.
"Once it manifested itself in Yuma County, it became a when not if, one of the people impacted would be an AWC student," said Dr. Daniel Corr, Arizona Western College President. "Given our large student population and prominence within the community, we felt that certainly once the virus arrived in Yuma, it would come to AWC’s doorstep pretty quickly."
Log-in data from a college computer showed the last time the student accessed a campus technology was March 12, two days before the student fell ill.
The college administration canceled all classes on March 16 and 17. Classes resumed online March 18 with the exception of Science, Arts and Career-tech classes. According to the college, the student had no affiliation with those in-person classes.
Officials said the college is working to identify all parties including students, faculty and staff that could have come in contact with the student.
Presumptive positive means it still has to be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control.
There are two confirmed COVID-19 cases in Yuma County. Officials there said the first confirmed case was a Marine who had visited Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Mayor Doug Nicholls said a second case was that Marine's roommate.
---
KAWC's Victor Calderon contributed to this report.
