MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Several counties in northern Wisconsin have asked people not to come to their area and isolate amid the coronavirus outbreak — even if they have a second or seasonal home in the area.

Counties like Door, Bayfield, Vilas and Sawyer have all issued similar orders. Some ask people to quarantine for two weeks if they have already moved into the areas from other parts of the state.

The concern is twofold, with part of it being over a higher concentration of elderly residents in these types of counties, and the other a concern about a smaller healthcare system faced with treating an outbreak of coronavirus patients.

“There's a lot of anxiety,” said Tim Size, executive director of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative.

Size said that smaller healthcare systems are facing a shortage of both space and staffing when it comes to treating the pandemic.

“They're small units, it wouldn't take many patients showing up positive to create real challenges,” he said.

Some of the communities have already seen people move up to second or seasonal homes to isolate there rather than more dense parts of the state.

“People think oh my gosh the beautiful apostle islands, that's the perfect place to quarantine myself, but no, our health care system just can't support more people, our grocery stores just can't support more people,” said Paige Rautio, Bayfield Chamber's marketing director.

She said the communities, especially places like Madeline Island, have limited access to healthcare as it is. So an outbreak could be dangerous.

“It's for the sake of our year-round vulnerable residents because we have an older population base,” Rautio said.

Door County has seen a surge of people moving into the area according to Dave Lienau, the County's board chair.

“We have seen literally hundreds of people come to door county, come to their second home believing that maybe it's a safer space than maybe where they were,” Lienau said.

Lienau said several people have complained about the request, citing individual property rights.

“What we try to explain is this isn't about taxpayer rights or property rights this is about social responsibility and protecting your neighbor your, your friends, your relatives we have limited resources up here and our concern is we are limited and we don't want to overwhelm them,” Lienau said.

However, the travel restrictions could hurt a lot of these communities, particularly the ones reliant on summer tourism.

“Our businesses depend on that four or five months of a season for their entire year, so the later it gets started the more difficult it is,” Lineau said.

In Bayfield, there is a similar concern.

“If this goes in to our peak season ... we're looking at business closures, I probably myself won't have a job,” Rauito said. “I mean it's really bad for these small towns that rely so heavily on tourism.”

Which has put areas like Bayfield and Door Counties in difficult situations of asking people to support businesses, while staying away for now.

“My job is to bring people to Bayfield, that's what I do, so this is really difficult to say, but safety just comes first in this situation,” Rautio said.