MOSES LAKE —While the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, can prove deadly for older patients and those with compromised immune systems, public health experts say one of the greatest concerns is that cases begin to overwhelm the health care system.

Nowhere is this threat more evident than in Italy, which in recent weeks has seen its health care system strained by coronavirus patients, and where medical providers have had to ration ventilators and choose whom to send away.

Though Washington is not as far along in the local spread of the virus, local hospitals have already seen a surge of coronavirus patients and have struggled to find appropriate supplies to meet the sudden demand. At the Kirkland hospital EvergreenHealth, staff turned to sanitary pads to buffer the padding in their helmets when supplies ran low, the New York Times reported last Wednesday.

Yesterday, it was reported that a doctor from the hospital had tested positive for the virus and was in critical condition.

But King County, which has been struggling with confirmed coronavirus cases since early February, likely still won’t see its cases peak for another six to eight weeks, county executive Dow Constantine said in a press conference on Monday.

Grant County’s first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in early March.

Many of the dramatic restrictions on public gatherings enacted in recent days by Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, were made to prevent that situation from developing, Inslee said in a press conference Monday.

“We’re attempting to build up our surge capacity in our hospital system,” Inslee said. “This is difficult, because unless we do social distancing, we’re going to have a real strain on our hospitals. Everybody’s got to pitch in.”

Though COVID-19 cases in Washington have been far more concentrated in urban areas, so too are many of the state’s hospital beds and resources. Rural areas like Grant County have fewer beds and resources.

Moses Lake’s Samaritan Hospital, which has the most available hospital beds in the county with 50 in total, currently has seven fully-staffed negative pressure rooms, which are designed for highly infectious diseases, prepared to isolate potential COVID-19 patients.

In total, the hospital has three ventilators and four Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machines, which can be used interchangeably to support a patient’s breathing, said Gretchen Youngren, executive director of development and communication at Samaritan.

By comparison, there have been seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Grant County as of Monday night, with two other probable cases and 38 tests pending results. So far, a majority of the cases have not required hospitalization.

Samaritan is working with other regional hospitals and the state to ensure hospitals have the ventilators they need, as well as making sure no one hospital takes on the brunt of any outbreak, Youngren said. And Inslee noted at Monday’s press conference that he was in talks with the federal government to bring more personal protective equipment into the state to counter current shortages.

Still, Samaritan and other hospitals across the state may begin looking at cutting non-essential services, such as elective surgeries, in the coming weeks to open up resources for critical care.

In the meantime, public officials continue to stress the importance of social distancing and slowing the spread of the disease to prevent overwhelming surges of patients.

“We expect the cases to continue to double every five to six days unless we decrease community spread,” said Jeff Duchin, King County Health Officer, during Monday’s press conference.

“This is what we mean by flattening the curve, decreasing the peak, delaying that peak and spreading out those infections over time,” Duchin continued. “And though most of us won’t get seriously ill, if we do nothing the number of people who need medical attention could exceed the capacity of the health care system.”