CLUSTER ANALYSIS FOR GEOGRAPHIC PRIORITIZATION OF COVID-19 VACCINATION IN THE STATE OF RIO DE JANEIRO

According to data compiled by the World Health Organization, by the second half of 2022, COVID-19 had caused approximately 15 million deaths globally. At the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, the state of Rio de Janeiro was initially classified as the one with the highest lethality rate, registering one death for every 20 infected patients. In the initial phase of the vaccination campaign in this state, only 488,320 doses of the immunizer were made available in the first batch of the immunizer. The purpose of this study was to identify which municipalities should have received priority in the initial supply of the vaccine in the state, given that different cities showed significant disparities in the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Using data from the main epidemiological observatories, we sought to assess the expected impact on the number of years of life saved (YLS) – instead of lives saved – if there had been a prioritization in the distribution of vaccines in specific groups of municipalities through cluster analysis. The results indicated that concentrating vaccination in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, to the detriment of the other conglomerates, would have more positive effects on the number of years saved. The primary contribution of this research lies in identifying effective practices for distributing vaccines in situations of scarce resources.