Group returned just before travel advisory related to coronavirus.

HYANNIS — School nurses are monitoring the health of Barnstable High School students who returned from a winter break trip to Italy on Feb. 23, one day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans to avoid travel to the European country because of the spread of COVID-19.

“We’ve been following the guidance of the (Massachusetts) Department of Public Health,” said Pam Ciborowski, nursing and wellness coordinator for Barnstable public schools.

So far, the department, which follows CDC guidelines, has not called for travelers returning from Italy to be isolated or enter a self-imposed quarantine.

School nurses have been checking the absenteeism rates of the 25 students who traveled to Italy with the school group to see if any have been absent for more than a day at a time, Ciborowski said.

“We’re kind of keeping an eye on the kids,” she said. “They’ve all been healthy.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, COVID-19, which is caused by a member of the coronavirus family, had sickened 2,500 people in Italy and killed 79. Most of those who died were elderly patients with underlying medical conditions, according to published reports.

It is the largest number of deaths outside mainland China, where COVID-19 first appeared in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

A Johns Hopkins University dashboard tracking infections and deaths said Tuesday afternoon there have been 92,818 cases of COVID-19 and 3,159 deaths, mainly in China.

The Department of Public Health said Americans who have visited China are advised they could face restrictions on their movements for 14 days.

Most of the Italian cases are in the northern part of the country, and the CDC advised against travel to Lombardy and Veneto “due to the high level of community transmission of virus and the presence of local quarantine procedures.”

The CDC said Americans should avoid all nonessential travel to Italy, Iran, South Korea and China at this time.

Ciborowksi said the Barnstable High students and their three chaperones did not travel to northern Italy.

A group of students from Newton North High School has been told by school officials to stay home after returning from a trip to Italy, according to published reports.

Two Rhode Island residents — a man in his 40s and a teenage girl — tested positive for coronavirus after a high school trip to Italy in mid-February, and a third person is being tested. The school announced that students and chaperones who were on the trip would be out of school until March 9.

State public health officials ask that people who have traveled to China, Italy, Iran, South Korea or Japan as of Monday and who have symptoms of respiratory illness or fever to contact their local board of health, health care provider or Massachusetts state epidemiology department at 617-983-6800.

So far there have been only two cases of coronavirus in Massachusetts, one involving a person from Boston who traveled to China and the other involving a person from Norfolk County who traveled to Italy, Barnstable Health Agency Thomas McKean said.

“The risk in Massachusetts is very low at this time,” McKean said.

Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @Cmccormickcct.