Geographic access to COVID-19 healthcare in Brazil using a balanced float catchment area approach.

ABSTRACT: The rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world has raised concerns about the responsiveness of cities and healthcare systems during pandemics. Recent studies try to model how the number of COVID-19 infections will likely grow and impact the demand for hospitalization services at national and regional levels. However, less attention has been paid to the geographic access to COVID-19 healthcare services and to hospitals' response capacity at the local level, particularly in urban areas in the Global South. This paper shows how transport accessibility analysis can provide actionable information to help improve healthcare coverage and responsiveness. It analyzes accessibility to COVID-19 healthcare at high spatial resolution in the 20 largest cities of Brazil. Using network-distance metrics, we

SUBMITTER: Pereira RHM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7879934 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature