most of the care is in the ICU setting.
in patients with respiratory problems. aka chronic lung disease... their lung function is diminished from years of tobacco damage.
their oxygen levels are very low ~50% compared to normal people... so they don't have the reserve to tolerate chest infections.
older people with heart and lung conditions...
and older people in general mount weaker responses.. and slower responses to infection...
allowing this particular virus to spread to the lungs.
normally the common cold is an upper respiratory tract infection which affects the airways above the vocal cords... think sore throat... runny nose.. cough ..sneeze...
lower respiratory tract infections are much more serious... bronchitis.. pneumonia...
covid has a rapid progressive pneumonia which dramatically reduces the lungs ability to exchange oxygen. and carbon dioxide, due to the accumulation of fluid in the lungs.
your question about early hospital care involves
supportive treatment as mentioned before.
antivirals (anti HIV drugs)... and some new experimental . show promise but are in very limited supply
oxygen supplementation
positive pressure ventilation (bipap cpap)
ventilatory support.
nitric oxide, and inhaled prostaglandins - improve oxygenation
and the extreme/ hail mary /... last ditch thing... lung bypass (ecmo) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. - oxygenating the blood directly .. bypassing the lung.
the issue with these treatments... are that hospitals have the ability to surge , handle ~10-50% more patients than normal for small periods of time.
they can give people oxygen in most patient rooms
they can give meds in most rooms. but are limited by drugs.
icu beds are severely limited and can only be surged to a small degree, based on limitations on the number of nurses and docs and respiratory therapists.
ventillators are very limited in number.
and only advanced tertiary (big) hospitals have capacity for ecmo.. and a limited number of those patients due to the number of machines and staff.
In china, to reallocate their health care resources .. they made very tough choices.
they let the old and sick die.. and quarantined them rather than treat
they chose to treat those who were likely to benefit.
they cancelled elective surgeries... and only did emergency care for non corona pts... this severely impacted other diseases like cancer, and heart disease, diabetes, etc...
they re assigned all health care providers regardless of specialty to care for corona virus pts.
they stockpiled and controlled meds, masks, supplies. (already happening in the usa)
they forcibly quarantined sick people, and severely limited travel , work, public gatherings, and communication.
hope this answered your question
@MountainGirl