Effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic via appropriate management of the built environment is an urgent issue. This study develops a research framework to explore the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and influential factors related to protection of vulnerable populations, intervention in transmission pathways, and provision of healthcare resources. Relevant data for regression analysis and structural equation modeling is collected during the first wave of the pandemic in the United States, from counties with over 100 confirmed cases. In addition to confirming certain factors found in the existing literature, we uncover six new factors significantly associated with COVID-19 incidence. Furthermore, incidence during the lockdown is found to significantly affect incidence after the reopening, highlighting that timely quarantining and treating of patients is essential to avoid the snowballing transmission over time. These findings suggest ways to mitigate the negative effects of subsequent waves of the pandemic, such as special attention of infection prevention in neighborhoods with unsanitary and overcrowded housing, minimization of social activities organized by neighborhood associations, and contactless home delivery service of healthy food. Also worth noting is the need to provide support to people less capable of complying with the stay-at-home order because of their occupations or socio-economic disadvantage.

通过对建筑环境进行适当管理来有效控制 COVID-19 大流行是一个紧迫的问题。本研究开发了一个研究框架，探讨 COVID-19 发病率与保护弱势群体、干预传播途径和提供医疗资源相关的影响因素之间的关系。回归分析和结构方程建模的相关数据是在美国第一波疫情期间从确诊病例超过 100 例的县收集的。除了确认现有文献中发现的某些因素外，我们还发现了与 COVID-19 发病率显着相关的 6 个新因素。此外，发现封锁期间的发病率对重新开放后的发病率有显着影响，这凸显出及时隔离和治疗患者对于避免随着时间的推移而滚雪球般的传播至关重要。这些发现提出了减轻后续疫情大流行负面影响的方法，例如特别注意住房不卫生和拥挤的社区的感染预防、尽量减少邻里协会组织的社交活动以及健康食品的非接触式送货上门服务。另外值得注意的是，需要向由于职业或社会经济劣势而无法遵守居家令的人们提供支持。