Modeling the lockdown relaxation protocols of the Philippine government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: An intuitionistic fuzzy DEMATEL analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started at Wuhan, has shut down world economies, prompting governments to impose drastic lockdown measures of the economy and the society. As these measures are exhausted, non-COVID-19 related issues such as those associated with the mental and physical well-being of people under lockdowns became an emerging concern. As these issues are evident, not to mention the economic downturn, governments are currently looking at designing lockdown relaxation efforts by simultaneously considering both public health and economic restart. Without documented experiences to rely on, governments are resorting to trial-and-error approach in creating a lockdown exit strategy while preventing succeeding waves of cases that may overwhelm healthcare facilities. Thus, this work pioneers the use of the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method with intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) sets along with the domain of public health and the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. The DEMATEL handles the intertwined causal relationships among guideline protocols for the relaxation strategy. The intuitionistic fuzzy set theory addresses the vagueness and uncertainty of human judgments in the context of the DEMATEL. A case study of the Philippine government response for the lockdown exit is presented to evaluate the applicability of the proposed method. Findings reveal that compliance of minimum public health standards, limited movement of persons, suspension of physical classes, the prohibition of mass gatherings, non-operation of category IV industries, and non-operation of hotels or similar establishments are the most crucial protocols for such strategy. These findings offer practical insights for the government to allocate resources and impose measures to ensure their implementation, as well as for developing mitigation efforts to cushion their socio-economic impacts. Policy insights and avenues for future works are also discussed.