During the 2018-19 flu season, about 35 million people in the US contracted the flu and about 34,000 died, according to the CDC.
You can see in the graph that the flu season has a longer duration than CCP-19, so far The graph accounts for the flu deaths you mention over time.
People are dying much faster within a shorter period of time with CCP-19 as illustrated.
Morale to the graph- It’s not the flu.