In Vancouver and British Columbia, we're lucky enough to have had far fewer cases of coronavirus than most Western regions. I might describe this as a "relatively mild epidemic". However the word epidemic seems like an intense word that'd be used only for things beyond a certain level of spread or intensity (I'm curious whether this is the technical meaning, but it does feel like the colloquial/connotational one).

So, what are alternative words to use? I say 'alternatives' since they needn't be synonyms, but need only point at the same class of phenomena (ie. they could apply to the current situation).

(Broader discussion of alternative phrases - of varying levels of intensity or heaviness - that one might use about the current situation more broadly would be interesting. But I believe I should keep the core question narrowly delimited for StackExchange.)