Chattanooga State Community College reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case this week as it phases in student and faculty members' return to campus this summer.
The college "became aware that a member of the campus community tested positive for COVID-19" on Monday, June 8, according to a statement posted on the school's website.
The individual, whose identity and status as a student or staff member is unknown, is quarantining at home, according to the college.
The college reported that the individual had been on campus much of last week, June 1 to 4, but access was limited to the Health Science Center and Plant Operations.
Chattanooga State has been reopening the campus in phases this summer, after it was closed for months this spring like most colleges and universities across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other area colleges including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the school hopes to resume the majority of classes on campus this fall.
A small number of students and faculty already began returning to campus on May 18, despite the majority of the college's students still taking classes online this summer.
Most of the 500 students on campus this summer are in the final semesters of some of the Chattanooga State's hands-on applied technology programs who are leaning over mills and drill presses in the machine tool lab or welding pieces together or working on cars in other labs.
Campus has remained closed to the public, but student-serving and public-facing offices like admissions or financial aid reopened on June 1.
According to a statement, the Health Science Center and Plant Operations buildings were cleaned and disinfected on Monday, following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.
"Chattanooga State, working with the local health department, immediately began contacting all individuals who may have had contact with the infected individual. All persons deemed to be a contact have been asked to self-quarantine for a minimum of 14 days," the school's president, Rebecca Ashford, said in a statement.
"While the majority of our students and employees continue online learning and working from home, we ask our campus community to remain vigilant with social distancing, wearing face masks and following all other CDC recommendations to mitigate the spread of the virus."
Hamilton County has continued to see a steady increase of confirmed cases in recent weeks as businesses across the state reopen. On Tuesday, the Hamilton County Health department announced a new high in the number of individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19.
This is a developing story. Check back with the Times Free Press for updates.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.