What is different is that Covid-19 is around 10 times more contagious and roughly 10 times more fatal, more than that if the hospitals get overwhelmed. It is not about how many people Covid-19 has killed to date, it is how many it may kill next week or next month.
Just looking at my state (Louisiana, one of the hardest hit per capita, with most cases in the New Orleans area), using the death statistics from the state department of health over the last 5 days
5, days ago total deaths in the state 20
4, days ago total deaths in the state 34
3, days ago total deaths in the state 46
2, days ago total deaths in the state 65
1, days ago total deaths in the state 83
Yes I know it is a cumulative count, but consider that the 5 day ago count was 9 days after the first death in the state. So it took over a week to go from first death to 20 deaths, but less than 2 days to go from 20 to 40, and only 3 mores days to go from 40 to 80. A sign things may be slowing, but keep in mind all schools, dine in restaurants, bars, and theaters, have been closed here for 11 days, and a stay at home order closing all other non-essential businesses has now been in effect for 4 days (wow it feels longer).
If the trend we were seeing before the stay at home has / had continued, we would be looking at doubling the deaths every 2-3 days, so. 80, +3 days, 160, +3 days 320, +3 days 740, +3 days 1,480, + 3 days 2,960. In other words in 2 mores weeks if the rate is not slowed, we would be looking at nearly 3,000 deaths in one day in this state alone, and 3 days after that we would be looking at 6,000, then 3 days after that 12,000. Until everyone had caught it, or at least a high enough percentage of the population that it would burn itself out (somewhere around 50%), with potentially millions dead by the end of the year. Remember that 3% death rate is with functioning modern hospitals, if the health care system collapses we could be looking at 20% (roughly that number need supportive hospital care, primarily supplemental Oxygen)
Chances are even with the current measures, the death total by the end of the year will make that flu figure look tiny.
p.s. updating with today's death total 119 which is up 36 from yesterday