For the COVID pandemic, we had quarantine in homes for locals, and quarantines in hotels or dedicated facilities for international arrivals. Even in countries like NZ that legendarily cut themselves off from the rest of the world, the virus still snuck in.

You can’t/won’t 100% stop people entering a country. Repatriation flights have crew. Goods arrive by manned flights and ships. Special permission is given to dignitaries and the rich & famous.

The next pandemic will hopefully see a country locked out from the rest of the world before it spreads to other countries. The best way to achieve that anywhere the virus appears is to shutdown the town/city where it is. That provides new challenges, as there often won’t be enough hotels to use for quarantine, and usually there won’t be any dedicated facilities. At the same time, supplies need to come in and out.

One thing we can do is have portable quarantine facilities that can be relocated to where they are needed, and that can by built-for-purpose tiny houses. These, by design, already fit on trailers. There’s even one that unfolds, for $US50K.

It just needs some tweaks:

• Hospital grade air-conditioning
• Food delivery hatches
• A fence to limit outdoor exercise distance