That's always been the biggest fear with Covid, so that's not unexpected. Long ICU durations, lack of sufficient ICU spots and staff, high infection rate, low case fatality rate still means it can quickly overwhelm hospitals and lead to much higher rates of death overall.

People crying "it's just a flu" were always missing the point.

But there is another factor, only recently mentioned in Indian media.

The fear factor causes many of those with means to insist on hospitalization. This article talks about it in the context of celebs [1] but I've seen it among my relatives as well where healthy young adults with moderate/high Ct values are admitted on insistence of their parents or themselves.

I read similar reporting about self-arranged oxygen use as well.

[1]: https://www.timesnownews.com/mumbai/article/mumbai-film-star...

That's interesting, thanks. Makes me wonder how widespread it is, but when spots are scarce and every bed counts, it's awful all the same.

Also ties back into the idea that governments need to act earlier than might seem necessary.

Which is a bit odd, since outside a few elite private institutions, Indian hospitals are dire and the same media regularly carries horror stories of rooms full of corpses etc.