ALPENA — Downstate residents hoping to escape the coronavirus pandemic at Up North cottages won’t be able to do so after today.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday extended through April 30 her order that Michiganders stay home unless absolutely necessary and expanded restrictions on travel and other aspects of everyday life in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Included in the new rules is a prohibition on travel “between two residences in this state” after today.

The overwhelming majority of the state’s more than 21,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are in Southeast Michigan, and the disease is exceptionally limited north of the Thumb. Many Up North public health officials have worried the disease could be spread here by snowbirds returning to summer homes or folks hoping to escape heavily infected cities and wait out the disease in rural northern Michigan. Officials worry a major northern outbreak could overwhelm rural hospitals with limited resources.

Whitmer’s Thursday order makes that illegal, with $1,000 fines possible for violators. Residents can still travel for health or safety reasons.

As of Thursday, two cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Presque Isle County, while zero cases have been reported in Alpena, Montmorency, or Alcona counties.