Location-Allocation Model to Improve the Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine Centers in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The correct distribution of service facilities can help keep fixed and overhead costs low while increasing accessibility. When an appropriate location is chosen, public-sector facilities, such as COVID-19 centers, can save lives faster and provide high-quality service to the community at a low cost. The purpose of the research is to highlight the issues related to the location of COVID-19 vaccine centers in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In particular, this paper aims to analyze the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccine centers in Jeddah city using maximal coverage location problems with and without constraint on the number and capacity of facilities. A maximal coverage model is first used to analyze the COVID-19 vaccination coverage of Jeddah districts with no restriction on the facility capacity. Then, a maximize capacitated coverage method is utilized to assess the centers’ distribution and demand coverage with capacity constraints. Finally, the minimize facilities model is used to identify the most optimal location required to satisfy all demand points with the least number of facilities. The optimization approaches consider the objective function of minimizing the overall transportation time and travel distance to reduce wastage on the service rate provided to the patients. The optimization model is applied to a real-world case study in the context of the COVID-19 vaccination center in Jeddah. The results of this study provide valuable information that can help decision-makers locate and relocate COVID-19 centers more effectively under different constraints conditions.

Covid19Vaxplorer: A free, online, user-friendly COVID-19 vaccine allocation comparison tool

“…There is a vast body of work that was developed to compare COVID-19 vaccination strategies. Most of the previous research has been devoted to analyze within-country or within-region vaccine allocation [ 17 – 19 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 31 , 33 , 74 – 84 ], some has explored the optimal use of COVID-19 vaccines globally to reduce between- [ 20 , 22 , 85 , 86 ], or within-country inequities [ 84 , 87 , 88 ]. Covid19Vaxplorer adds to previous work with the hope of providing those countries or regions with limited modeling capabilities with a tool for vaccine allocation comparison.…”

Test Center Location Problem: A Bi-Objective Model and Algorithms

“…Initially framed as a bi-objective mixed integer linear program, they introduced a weighted-sum, ϵ-constraint and used genetic algorithms to solve the problem. Alhothali et al [25] discussed the COVID-19 vaccination center location problem with the objectives of enhancing accessibility and minimizing costs. They employed maximal coverage models with a focus on minimizing transportation time and travel distance.…”

Optimizing the Selection of Mass Vaccination Sites: Access and Equity Consideration

“…The weighting factors were then incorporated into a distance minimization objective function. A location-allocation model was developed by Faisal, Alshammari, Alotaibi, Alghanmi, Bamsagm, and Bin Yamin (2022) [16] to improve the allocation of COVID-19 vaccine centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The authors introduced a maximal coverage model with and without facility capacity constraints.…”