The already-overloaded hospitals are going to be flooded with patients. We don't know how deadly this may be for older and immune-impaired patients. Not enough data, especially given that those infected in South Africa were mostly much younger people. If you have 4 times as many people infected, but only 1/4 as many need hospitalization, it's still the same number of hospital beds needed.

Already, people who would have been admitted to hospitals in the past are being turned away, and people who have heart attacks, strokes, or were in accidents are not being admitted to the ICU where they belong, because there is not room. The true death toll from COVID is much higher because these unnecessary deaths are directly related to it.