The response of the United States to the coronavirus pandemic has been haphazard, a patchwork of rules applied inconsistently. Some states lack stay-at-home mandates, and many that have mandates got started less than a week ago. We’re suffering under a jumble of half measures that are likely to drag on for months and that fail to solve the problem.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Evidence from around the world shows that stay-at-home orders are likely to take us only so far. There is a proven public health approach to pandemics that has worked in the past against Ebola and other diseases, and has already worked well against Covid-19 in countries like China, South Korea and Singapore. (See, for example, the analysis of nearly 26,000 Covid-19 cases in Wuhan, China, conducted by the biostatistician Xihong Lin and colleagues.)

Four key measures, on top of treating the ill and maintaining physical distancing, must be in place not just to slow the rise of Covid-19 cases, but also to bend the curve downward. These are: test widely, isolate the infected, trace the contacts of those infected and quarantine appropriately.

Of all these measures, the one that will require the greatest adaptation on the part of the American public is isolation and quarantine. Where this has been most successful it has required separate designated facilities to accommodate and monitor those isolated with mild illness and those subject to quarantine. We call this approach “smart isolation and quarantine” or “smart quarantine.”