Presumably the cases are so low precisely because we have enacted these measures.

If we had not done that we'd probably look more like New York right now.

The more effective your measures are, the more it is going to look like they were unnecessary.

Or to reuse your metaphor: A campfire can turn into a wildfire really quickly. If we hadn't thrown the tsunami onto it when it was the size of a campfire, we might have gotten a wildfire burning down the whole state.