Comment by rossdavidh

If you're looking at human cost, then yes, deaths is what matter. If you're evaluating protocols to prevent infection, then cases per capita is exactly what you care about. The likelihood of death when you get infected could be a better measure of how well the hospital can treat it, for example. But if you're evaluating how well mask-wearing impacts the spread of the virus, then looking at new cases per capita is the metric of interest.