MOSES LAKE — As medical facilities across the state brace for the impact of coronavirus, Moses Lake Community Health Center has set up a tent in the back parking lot to process those with similar symptoms.

The triage tent is intended to redirect clients who may potentially carry the virus from mixing with the facility’s general population, according to Stephanie Melcher, marketing and communications director with the Community Health Center.

Clients calling in to the center with symptoms of respiratory illness, including coughing, shortness of breath and fever, are being asked to drive to that tent to be seen by a medical assistant.

From there, MAs will ask clients a series of questions according to state and federal guidelines, including whether they have in the last 14 days been in contact with a patient confirmed to have caught the virus or if they have traveled through a limited subset of affected areas. In addition, those experiencing symptoms and also severe respiratory conditions, such as pneumonia, may also be able to receive testing.

The testing guidelines are likely to exclude the majority of possible patients with the virus but are meant to prioritize the most likely or worst cases due to limited testing capacity, according to state health officials. Those testing guidelines are expected to broaden in coming days or weeks as more tests become available.