Before revision:  The key innovation of our proposed strategy is its ability to recruit stochastic effects such as spontaneous extinction and fluctuations in timing to contain the epidemic , even when infection numbers in the population as a whole are not small and their spatial distribution is unknown. It involves partitioning the population into smaller isolated sub-populations within which, while social distancing is practiced as much as possible to reduce the contact rate, a relatively normal lifestyle is maintained. As a rule of thumb, the optimal size of the sub-populations can be obtained by dividing the total population size by the best estimate of the number of infected individuals at the time of the implementation of this containment strategy .
After revision:  The key innovation of our proposed strategy is its ability to recruit stochastic effects such as spontaneous extinction and fluctuations in timing to contain the epidemic , even when the optimal size of the sub-populations can be obtained by dividing the total population size by the best estimate of the number of infected individuals at the time of the implementation of this containment strategy .