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PROVIDENCE — As the number of coronavirus cases in Rhode Island jumped from five to 14 Friday, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced all public schools would close for at least a week, imposed a ban on visits to nursing homes and signed an executive order instructing anyone who has traveled internationally in the last two weeks to self-quarantine.

While acknowledging a growing concern about the virus, Raimondo emphasized that “panic is not helpful” and appealed to all Rhode Islanders to help reduce the spread of the disease by avoiding crowds, working remotely wherever possible and adhering to simple health protocols such as washing hands.

“Every single Rhode Islander is on the front line of containing this,” she said. “What we do now is going to determine our collective future for the next weeks or months. And we know right now this is going to get worse before it gets better, and I don’t want to sugarcoat that.”

The public announcement of nine new cases within 24 hours was not surprising, Raimondo said, given the amount of testing the state Department of Health is doing daily now — as many as 80 tests a day. “This is roughly what we were expecting,” Raimondo said.

Speaking at an afternoon news conference, the governor said that moving quickly to slow the disease’s spread was critical; as she was learning from health experts and research: “every half-a-day matters.”

Of the nine new cases, three are children; five are female and four are male. Eight of the nine new cases are people who are recovering at home. The other person is recovering in a nursing home and is in isolation there, said Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott.

One of the new cases is a student at Cranston High School West, which has an enrollment of about 1,550 students. The school informed parents by email and said all students, faculty and staff would be in self-quarantine for the next 14 days.

Two others were Westerly juveniles. Chief Shawn Lacey said at a news conference that one of the children was a second-grader at Springbrook Elementary School, and the other a Westerly resident who attends a preschool in Connecticut.

Lacey said one of the students had recently returned from a Bahamas cruise while another had recently been to a Boston Celtics game, and got an autograph from a player who contracted the virus. The game was against the Utah Jazz, two players from that team have tested positive.

Alexander-Scott said the state was still investigating the origins of all the nine new cases, but that they were connected to four unrelated trips: one to Europe, one to the Bahamas, one to Jamaica and one involving “regional travel within our surrounding states.”

The one-week school shutdown meant districts would move up their scheduled April vacations, Raimondo said. During the shutdown, districts will develop ways students could learn remotely, if the need arises, and schools will be cleaned.

What happens at the end of next week remains uncertain, Raimondo said: “We are taking this a day at a time, a week at a time.”

Raimondo said she knew “we are asking for sacrifices here" from teachers and school nurses, whom she described as heroes. ”A lot of you have plans to go away in April. We’re asking you next week to stay home, to keep your kids home with you and be available” to talk to the principal, and each other in order to get a plan in place for “distance learning,” if needed.

While the governor’s directive does not pertain to private schools, Alexander-Scott said she would urge them as well to close for the week. And by day’s end Friday, the Providence Diocese announced that all Catholic schools in the state would do so.

At the same time, Raimondo asked childcare and daycare facilities in the state to remain open next week.

Raimondo said state personnel would be posted at T.F. Green Airport, reminding travelers returning from overseas that they have to self-quarantine for 14 days. As for enforcing that directive, Raimondo said she had faith Rhode Islanders would chose to make the right decision on their own.

Raimondo also instructed nursing-home administrators to prohibit all visits to elderly patients for the time being, since that population has proven highly susceptible to the disease.

“We are doing this to protect our loved ones who are in these nursing homes,” she said. “I understand that’s a difficult policy, we are hearing from family members who want to visit mom or dad at the nursing home. You are forbidden from visiting these nursing homes, period, until further notice.”

Earlier in the week, Raimondo had called for postponing or canceling all gatherings of 250 people or more. Since then, she said, some organizations — she didn’t identify which — had been sending out correspondence implying that her directive might be reconsidered.

“I want to make it very clear,” she said: “shut them down. Large gatherings, shut them down: school gatherings, church gatherings, sports gatherings, big parties.” The “next week or two are absolutely critical as we try to stay ahead of this virus.”

Raimondo said Rhode Islanders could even help by simply not traveling far. “Stay local. Stay here....

“The mantra now is: take this seriously, but don’t panic, and don’t make this worse than it is.”

In terms of going out to dinner, Alexander-Scott urged seniors in particular “to be extra cautious” about being in large crowds and urged anyone who is ill to stay home.

On Friday night, the state Lottery announced that the Twin River casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton would close for one week, at which point the situation would be reassessed. The casino had a day earlier canceled upcoming events.

The Health Department said Friday afternoon it had asked about 500 people around the state to self-quarantine due to direct exposure to a person who has tested positive for the virus. It reported 142 people have tested negative and the test results of 29 others were still pending.

While states are taking different approaches to fighting the spread of the illness, Raimondo said, “right now in our state we have taken broader, more robust action and sooner, and that’s paying off. And we have to keep doing it.”

A team from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention is in Rhode Island monitoring the spread of the disease.

“We never want to get to the place where our health-care system is overrun,” the governor said. And so far, she said, it is not.

With reports from staff writer Brian Amaral.