Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says the government expends between N500,000 and N1 million daily on treating one COVID-19 patient in critical condition.
Abayomi, who disclosed this at a press briefing on Thursday, said the cost of managing a patient depends on factors such as being mild, moderate or severe.
He said up to N100,000 can be spent on a patient with mild symptoms daily.
Abayomi said, “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.”
The health commissioner added that the state has set up an outpatient facility to monitor progress of discharged COVID-19 patients for six to 12 months.
He said the facility would manage post COVID-19 syndrome beginning to reflect in the reinfection of some discharged patients.
“We are beginning to discover from around the world that there is something called post COVID-19 syndrome. Post COVID-19 syndrome is not well-defined. It is characterised by long term lethargy, weakness or what we have recognised as relapses,” he said.