If you or someone you know had serious covid - how soon after infection did they have to go to hospital?

[challengerequired]

I keep reading there's a two/three/four week lag, is that your experience?

Think it's between day 5 and 12.
We had patients who clinically looked fine but extremely oxygen dependent. Sat up talking on 100 % fio2/70 ltr flow, sats late 80s - early 90s. What made it difficult at the start was that we were advised not to put people on high flow when they started to deteriorate due to the risk of aerosol contamination so essentially max 10 -12 ltrs then ventilation. Deterioration very quick, awake, then self proned but conscious then ventilated literally within hours, repeatedly. Bloody awful for everyone and why some of my colleagues are off with mental health issues.

39 year old, became ill on the 5th day, died on the 9th day.

Positive test on Wednesday. Taken to hospital early hours of Thursday morning. Would definitely be dead if I'd got it in March.

Day 13 for me, but I had been struggling for a week prior to the ambulance coming. It was in March last year, right at the start of the pandemic, and the phone triage doctor refused me admission on day 6, as they were trying to ration beds.
When I was finally taken, in I found eight empty wards cleared for Covid patients - while people were left at home to suffer.
I’m now 16 months into long Covid.