I hear it from another angle I have a particular reason for being aware of the covid cases in the local care homes and I'm in Essex (but one of the unitary authorities ) the hospitals are still taking care home patients which stopped for all but absolute desperate cases in March. It is a decent litmus test , the local homes that I know are saying they aren't seeing massive increases , their contact with the hospitals (which is daily are saying that whilst they expect an increase it's not all doom and gloom and at capacity ....far from it currently)
My DP teaches in hospitals across the country and he is not hearing desperate panic (although obviously he is not in the top tier areas ), he teaches something specific that needs to be updated legally but even he was cancelled during the summer , the fact that he is being booked gives me a lot of hope. Trust me , however important it was he wouldn't be booked if things were as dire as some people suggest.
I'm not saying things aren't bad and I will always and believe strongly in complying with rules and taking this seriously but its not countrywide and there is currently no indication that the ITU beds here or in other parts of the country are at capacity yet.
Dp teaches quite a few clinical leads , or rather has done recently , and they are certainly expecting the proverbial to hit the fan , but they seem to feel they will make it through although are expecting it to be tough (small sample of course and only anecdotal) , interestingly the type of teaching DP does has shown they are upskilling unusual staff to be as prepared as possible. Its rather impressed me in some places.
Sorry that was stupidly rambling, I guess I'm hoping it may allay some fears , maybe sort of , we have almost accidental access to hospitals and care homes as a sort of a litmus test and it's not translating as on their knees as some of the scare mongering suggests.
Of course fully aware we could be wrong.