The first fundamentally different thing should be the presence good testing and contact tracing. With high rates, I don't think that's a viable strategy, but if cases are few enough, it should work.
Different countries have done different things, but my understanding is that South Korea avoided a lock down for the most part by implementing this before cases were widespread. They occasionally add some temporary restrictions, but I think "sometimes we have to add some restrictions until there's a vaccine" is a livable long-term situation. What we're seeing in the US is that for a lot of people, our current situation isn't.
But if you get the infection rates very low, and reopen, the infection rates will go up, unless something fundamental has changed.