AN ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS APPROACH FOR A COVID-19 RISK ASSESSMENT STUDY AMID THE LATEST RE-OPEN AND UNLOCK PHASE IN INDIA

Abstract

The long duration of the COVID-19 pandemic has now compelled people to come out of their cells and begin engaging in various activities using different modes and in different places, which involves a high risk of being infected by COVID-19. This work aims to analyze the degree of the risk involved in such activities with the implementation of the latest re-open and unlock phase in India, the second most COVID-19 affected country. Seven important activities and the mode and place of conducting these activities are considered as the main criteria and sub-criteria of this study. The responses are formed with a pairwise comparison matrix, and an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach is used to calculate the criteria/sub-criteria weights. An integrated AHP analysis output representation consisting of the degree of risk, grades, ranking, and major reasons of risk for each criterion and sub-criteria of this work is presented. This risk assessment study may help identify risky activities so that people can choose other available alternatives.