Spherical bipolar fuzzy weighted multi-facility location modeling for mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics

Abstract

A pandemic was declared in 2020 due to COVID-19. The most important way to deal with the virus is mass vaccination which is a complex task in terms of fast transportation and process management. Hospitals and other health centers are appropriate for vaccination process. In addition, in order to protect other patients from COVID-19 and provide rapid access to vaccines, mobile vaccination clinics can also be considered. In this study, the location assignments of mobile vaccination clinics that can serve some regions of three cities in Turkey are examined. The linear formulation of the problem is given, and the multi-facility location problem for COVID-19 vaccination is investigated with Lagrange relaxation and modified saving heuristic algorithm. For the proposed fuzzy MCDM integrated saving heuristic, the importance of candidate locations is calculated with the aid of decision makers who give their views in spherical bipolar fuzzy information. The results of different approaches are compared, and it is intended to guide future studies.