Vaccines4All: fair and efficient location, routing and allocation models to support large-scale vaccination

The current COVID-19 crisis has put healthcare under tremendous pressure. Although in several countries in Western Europe the amount of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 is slowly reducing the current crisis situation can only come to a full stop if a vaccine has been developed and is ready to be administered to people. In the proposed research project we aim to develop location, routing and prioritisation/allocation models to distribute and administer vaccines among the population efficiently, timely and in fair manner. We apply the models to the situation in Turkey. We (1) develop models for the location and routing of medical facilities to administer vaccines to people based on disease transmission models, minimising risks of disease transmission and maximising population reach, (2) develop scenarios for prioritization and dynamic simulation for allocation of vaccine quantities and vaccination capacity, and (3) apply models to Turkey (within constraints of public data availability). In phase 1 we analyse the system and develop a framework. We aim to investigate relevant literature and the current situation in Turkey with regard to COVID-19 and vaccination plans. In phase 2 we develop models and alternative solution methods for the location and routing of medical facilities in order to administer vaccination to the population. We also aim to design prioritization scenarios and a dynamic simulation model for stock and capacity allocation strategies. In phase 3 we perform computational tests using the models on data from Istanbul (Turkey) and we report and disseminate general project findings.