UPDATE: Two Symptom-Free Burlington County, N.J. Students Stay Home Because Of Ebola Concerns

Two students from Africa who were scheduled to start classes at a Burlington County school will stay home past a three-week waiting period because of Ebola concerns - even though they are symptom-free, school officials said.

Beth Norcia, Maple Shade superintendent of schools, said the students are symptom-free and not from an affected area, but the parents have elected to keep their children home past the 21-day waiting period.

An NBC10 report, however, said a school nurse at Howard Yocum School in Maple Shade sent a letter to staff members that seemed to imply the two new students from Rwanda were being told to arrive at the school on October 20.

She said she is ”taking precautions as per the health guidelines of the Burlington County Health Department,” the nurse wrote. “I will be taking the students’ temperature three times a day for 21 days,” according to NBC10.

This area of Africa, Rwanda, has been unaffected by the Ebola virus, Norcia said, and “the family is looking forward to joining the Maple Shade Schools the following week.”

“The Maple Shade School District takes the health of all students and staff very seriously,” she said in a statement on the district’s website.

In her letter, the nurse cites a Centers for Disease Control recommendation that all people who arrive in the United States from an Ebola-affected area be checked for fever daily for three weeks - though acknowledging Rwanda is not an area affected by Ebola, according to NBC10.