The costs of overcrowding (and release): Strategic discharges for isolated facilities during epidemiological outbreaks

Kati Moug, Siqian Shen

Abstract: Highlights•We consider tradeoffs when releasing individuals in densely populated facilities during epidemiological outbreaks.•We optimize strategic releases over time under competing objectives.•We formulate a multi-criteria Markov Decision Process and develop clustering and Q-learning solution algorithms.•We assume a Susceptible–Infectious–Recovered epidemiological model for deriving theoretical conditions.•We conduct numerical studies to show better computational time and better long-term cost of dynamic release policies.