Safety-Stock: Predicting the demand for supplies in Brazilian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many challenges lie ahead when dealing with COVID-19, not only related to the acceleration of the pandemic, but also to the prediction of personal protective equipment sets consumption to accommodate the explosive demand. Due to this situation of uncertainty, hospital administration encourages the excess stock of these materials, over-stocking products in some hospitals, and provoking shortages in others. The number of available personal protective equipment sets is one of the three main factors that limit the number of patients at a hospital, as well as the number of available beds and the number of professionals per shift.