I suppose it depends on when and whose estimates you're comparing it to.

They found that, overall, the number of people who died after getting sick with the coronavirus was 1.4 per cent. In comparison, estimations by the World Health Organization in early March said 3.4 per cent of diagnosed patients had died. source

Currently, about 6% of people diagnosed globally have died (considering the dead and recovered, excluding those who are still ill). But a few months ago due to lack of testing the USA was rocking a 25% case fatality rate so predictions made then would've been higher than the reality now. We won't know the exact fatality rate until the whole thing's over.

By less contagious I mean that initially many people believed that the elimination approach couldn't work. That the virus would remain on surfaces or suspended in the air for weeks and months and would flare up as soon as restrictions were eased. Compared to those expectation, it's been quite easy to stop transmission in New Zealand and several Australian states. We'll wait and see if a similar approach is effective in Victoria once the Virus has become established in the community.