Abstract
The global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has accounted for many deaths. The effective containment of the current COVID-19 epidemic calls for a fast and sustainable delivery strategy to minimize the impact of this crisis. As such, this study aimed to conduct a comprehensive review of research on the vehicle routing problem (VRP) from a sustainable viewpoint during the pandemic and explore viable delivery solutions that may aid in the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a systematic review of the selected articles, four broad themes of pandemic containment measures from the delivery aspect were identified: efficient pharmaceutical delivery strategy, contactless distribution, sustainable waste transportation strategy, and isolated and quarantine vehicle scheduling. Following that, the methodology utilized to execute the containment measures were analyzed, research gaps were hightlighted, and possibilities for future studies were suggested. In summary, the goal of this research is to provide an overview of the literature on the application of VRPs in pandemic control and to assist academics and practitioners in learning more about the performance metrics, models, and solution techniques utilized in pandemic control delivery operations.
Highlights
Human history is full of public health crises that resulted in widespread pain and death.For example, epidemics of plagues with high mortality rates in late medieval Europe caused numerous deaths; the 1918–1919 Spanish influenza pandemic killed almost 50 million people globally [1,2]; and the influenza A(H1N1) virus outbreak in 2010 spread to 214 nations, killing 18,114 people [3]
vehicle routing problem (VRP) applications on animal disease control [53], agricultural route planning [54,55], home health care (HHC) [56,57,58,59,60], supply chain management [61,62], and production management [63] were excluded from consideration, since this review aims to focus on humanitarian delivery optimization and pandemic control
Our focus was on the application of VRPs in controlling the spread of the pandemic, and numerous themes emerged: efficient pharmaceutical delivery, contactless distribution, sustainable waste transportation, and isolated and quarantined vehicle scheduling
Summary
Human history is full of public health crises that resulted in widespread pain and death. Epidemics of plagues with high mortality rates in late medieval Europe caused numerous deaths; the 1918–1919 Spanish influenza pandemic killed almost 50 million people globally [1,2]; and the influenza A(H1N1) virus outbreak in 2010 spread to 214 nations, killing 18,114 people [3]. Since December 2019, the global spread has been so rapid that nearly 263,714,765 cases of infections have been confirmed worldwide as of the 1st of December, 2021, and around 5,228,255 people have perished [5]. COVID-19 may come to coexist with humans [6,7], and continue to severely threaten public health [8]. Sustainable infection control measures are urgently needed in order to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and its dissemination
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