The protocol is always pretty much the same to begin with: isolate and contain. That means quarantine suspected patients, and test.
We had a pandemic playbook that was actually put together with what we learned post-SARS, but unfortunately it apparently got lost during the government transition.
We also were lacking testing during this particular pandemic initially, which meant that the CDC sent orders to only test very sick individuals, which is not how you contain.
Now, to be fair, I believe this virus is much more contagious than SARS.
And yes, now that tests are available, we're more or less following the proper protocol.