Since instances of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) community spread emerged in the United States, federal and local governments have implemented multiple containment measures. However, in order to satisfy the needs of  citizens, the strictest containment measures can be only executed for short period. This article compares two types of containment strategies: a constant containment strategy that could satisfy the needs of citizens for a long period and an adaptive containment strategy whose strict level changes across time. When to implement the strictest measures is also of interest. A  prediction model is proposed and a simple tool is developed for policy makers to compare different containment strategies. As an example, a county with 2.8 million population with initial 200  infectious cases is considered , where about 0.15\% people died during the pandemic. Compared with a constant containment strategy, adaptive containment strategies shorten the outbreak length and executing the strictest measures earlier will cause less mortality.
Since instances of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) community spread emerged in the United States, federal and local governments have implemented multiple containment measures. However, in order to satisfy the needs of its citizens, the strictest containment measures can be only executed for short period. This article compares two types of containment strategies: a constant containment strategy that could satisfy the needs of citizens for a long period and an adaptive containment strategy whose strict level changes across time. When to implement the strictest measure is also of interest. A dynamic prediction model is proposed and a simple tool is developed for policy makers to compare different containment strategies. As an example, a region with population 2.8 million and 200 initial infectious cases is considered assuming a 4\% mortality rate. We found that compared with a constant containment strategy, adaptive containment strategies shorten the outbreak length and executing the strictest measures early will cause less mortality.
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