South Korea is the best (but not only) example of other countries handling it differently and better than America.

Both countries had their first case on or about the same day, around Jan 25th.

South Korea immediately took it seriously and focused on testing as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
Since then they have tested ~300k people and took major steps to 'socially distance'.

From late Jan till early March, America downplayed the whole thing.  The president praised China, lied about how many cases there were, blamed his political opponents for the 'corona hoax' and insisted the whole thing would basically blow over.  America has 5x+ the population of SK and have tested like 30k people total.

South Korea cases are now decreasing daily.  Cases in America are increasing exponentially.

These numbers might be a bit off, but you get the point.