Chris Hopson, of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said while critical care capacity had been expanded hospitals within the capital had seen an "explosion" in demand.
A third of the united kingdom cases are diagnosed within the city.
Mr. Hopson said high staff absence rates were creating a "wicked combination".
"They are battling two things.
"The first is that the explosion of demand they're seeing in seriously ill patients.
"They mention wave after wave after wave - the word that's often won't to me maybe a continuous tsunami.
"We are now seeing 30%, 40% and indeed in some places 50% sickness rates as staff catch the virus or are in vulnerable groups or need to self-isolate.
"That's unprecedented."
Mr. Hopson said that, while extra capacity was being brought in - including 4,000 beds at the ExCel centre in London's Docklands - hospital chief executives were concerned it might be spent "very quickly".
It comes because the NHS has taken unprecedented steps to organize for the height, which experts say is simply two or three weeks away.
Hospitals have cleared the decks
From next month all routine operations, like hip and knee replacements, are being canceled for 3 months.
There is also a drive to urge as many patients discharged from the hospital who don't get to be there.
These two measures could release 30,000 of the 100,000 hospital beds in England alone.
Intensive care capacity is increasing
The NHS in England has 3,700 adult medical care beds - a figure which rises to overflow 4,000 if you think about the remainder of the united kingdom.
At the beginning of March, about eight in 10 were occupied.
But several hundred are occupied by patients following routine operations so stopping those will give the NHS extra headroom.
The NHS is getting to rise up to 12,000 medical care beds in total by sourcing extra ventilators.
A deal has already been through with the private sector to urge access to 1,200 ventilators utilized in their hospitals, while ventilators for youngsters are being re-purposed as old and new stocks are being pulled in.
The latest figures provided by the govt in the week suggest there are now 8,000 ventilators available to the NHS.
How they're going to be staffed remains unclear. Rules are being relaxed to permit non-intensive care specialists to be paired with specialists and staff-to-patient ratios can also get to be reduced.
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