Many people who were directly involved in caring for victims during these first few weeks are of the opinion that the severity of the situation at the time and the number of deaths were directly correlated with the fear instilled upon healthcare workers. So essentially they say that the first two weeks of lockdown were actually responsible for many of these deaths.
But it might have been a catch22, because people were getting sick and many of them would end up needing to be hospitalized so as long as the situation in the hospitals didn't calm down it was imperative to keep as many people as possible out of the hospital.