Lagos spends between N100,000 and N1m to treat a COVID-19 patient daily, says commissioner

Lagos State Government, yesterday, revealed that it spends between N100,000 and N1 million daily to treat a COVID-19 patient.The state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, disclosed this at a briefing to provide update on efforts by the state in managing the pandemic.
   
Abayomi stated that for mild and moderate cases, the state government spends averagely about N100,000 daily, while it costs the state government about N500,000 and N1 million to treat a patient with serious or intensive COVID-19 case.
 
He, however, said that it was very difficult to calculate what it costs the state government to treat a COVID-19 patient but that what he provided was a rough estimate. The treatment, according to him, includes the cost of feeding, accommodation and the services provided by the healthcare givers, among others.

The commissioner said the state government had discontinued the idea of using a rapid diagnostic kit to test patients because research sponsored by the governor indicate that it failed validation, as it provided inaccurate results.

Abayomi also disclosed that 2,036 COVID-19 patients had not been picked from the community in the last two weeks due to their preference for home treatment, wrong information provided in their forms and inability to reach such patients.

On the advice by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 that some local councils in Lagos State be locked down due to the high positive Coronavirus recorded in such councils, the commissioner said that the impossibility of implementing the lockdown made the state government not to consider it.

He disclosed that 60 per cent of the positive COVID-19 cases in Lagos were shared among five local councils of Eti-Osa, Alimosho, Kosofe, Ikeja and Oshodi-Isolo, though Eti-Osa tops.

According to the commissioner, the state government would be increasing the bad capacity of its isolation centre by 220-bed space, as a 70-bed space would be commissioned today at Ajao-Estate while another 150-bed space would be unveiled next week in Yaba.

He, therefore, warned residents against patronising laboratories not accredited by the state government to carry out COVID-19 tests, maintaining that not all labs can conduct Coronavirus test.

Abayomi, who further said that more private labs would be accredited to join the seven already approved, disclosed that seven laboratories had conducted 1,538 tests in the last 14 days.
 
He stated that the state hopes to reach its peak in rising COVID-19 cases in August, which would then be followed by a flattening of the curve and decrease. He further said the government would launched it home based care management in the next few weeks, promising to continue to increase its testing capacity from one to about two to four thousand in the coming days.