@EasterIssland
Well, it is sensible to keep a wary eye on how the numbers of seriously ill people with covid are mounting up. We know pretty well now that with exponential growth we can quickly go from very low numbers to surprisingly high numbers.
I am quite interested in the rate of increase of hospitalisations (and deaths) because these figures indicate where the trend is going.
It wasn't the Guardian providing their own niche interpretation of the ventilation figures, they were reporting Saffron Cordery, the deputy CEO of NHS Providers (an organisation which has all NHS membership Trusts in voluntary membership and is led by them). She was basically saying that the NHS is very concerned about the rise in serious Covid cases. I would be inclined to take that quite seriously.
If the increases in case figures aren't going to be linked to more serious illness and death, then you wouldn't expect very much rise in hospitalisations. You also wouldn't necessarily expect the number of covid patients being allocated mechanical ventilation beds (if we express it like that) to be a higher proportion of the overall hospitalisation figures than at the peak.
Of course, we can't altogether predict how things will pan out, but you would hope that if vaccines have paved the way for covid to be experienced as a largely innocuous illness, then the number of hospitalisations might be low and the number of critically ill covid patients would be relatively lower.
Waiting here for more figures with thoughtful interest.