Lagos Spends N.1m Daily On Each Mild-to-moderate COVID-19 Patient –Commissioner
The Lagos Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, says the state government spends about N100,000 daily on each COVID-19 patient whose case is mild-to-moderate.
He added that a severe case could gulp up to one million naira to maintain on a daily basis.
Abayomi disclosed this on Thursday while briefing the media on COVID-19 update in Alausa.
According to the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, mild and moderate cases of COVID-19 patients are usually defined as those without pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or Intensive Care Unit admission.
They may, however, have symptoms such as dyspnea [shortness of breath], headache, anosmia [loss of the sense of smell], diarrhoea, sore throat, fatigue, fever and rhinorrhea [runny nose].
Speaking on the financial cost of managing COVID-19 patients in the state’s isolation centres, Abayomi said the cost of treatment depends on whether a patient’s symptoms are mild, moderate, high care or intensive care case.
“To treat mild-to-moderate case patients in our isolation centre is somewhere in the region of N100,000 per day.
“That gives you an idea of the amount of money the government is spending on COVID-19 isolation facilities and COVID-19 care.
“If you require high care or intensive care, that amount can go up to anything from N500,000 to even a million naira per day, depending on the complications of the case.
“Do you need ventilation, dialysis, intravenous antibiotics… Every case is different; so, it is difficult to calculate exactly how much a patient in high care or intensive care would cost.
“We are working on the rate and we would make it available when it’s ready,” he said.
The commissioner noted that there were 13,543 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lagos, 2,075 of the cases had been discharged from isolation centres, while 192 deaths have been recorded so far.
Credit: TodaySplash