It’s hospitalisations etc that matter.
Hospitalisations is a lagging factor, by the time you get one, 100 will be infected, by the time 20 of those are hospitalised, 1000 will be infected. Even case numbers require the virus to be circulating for about 2 weeks before you will have enough virus in your system to test "positive".
Deaths are the same, some don't pass away for several weeks after contracting the virus. So death rate today is roughly for case numbers 1-2 weeks ago, as are hospitalisations, and case numbers are for people infected up to 2 weeks before.
This is not some computer game where you have real time data, everything has already happened and will happen, the government is playing catch-up with the numbers. This was always why contact tracing within the community was going to fail in the long run. Prevention requires breaking the numbers before they occur, not chasing your tail for where it has been.