OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on health systems globally, through increased needs for health services and subsequent costs. The purpose of this analysis is to provide an updated estimate of the direct healthcare cost for the management of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Greece.

METHODS: Costs were estimated under the health care sector perspective, and include the resources attributed to testing for COVID-19 and to hospitalizations (in a general ward (GW) or in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU)). Resource use data were based on publicly available sources and published literature. Unit prices are those of the third-party payer in Greece. The time horizon of the analysis covers the period from March 2020 to December 2021.

RESULTS: Total direct healthcare expenditure for the management of Covid-19 confirmed cases during the time horizon of the study amount at 1.78 billion €. For the year 2021 only, the cost estimated at 1.43 billion €, which is equal to 14.7% of the annual public healthcare expenditure and 9.1% of total healthcare expenditure in Greece. The majority of costs (almost 1bn €) is attributable to testing, as about 48 billion COVID test have been performed, while the remaining cost refers to hospitalizations (341.7 and 434.8 million € for GW and ICU bed-days respectively). The average cost per case that required GW-hospitalization only was 3,101.6 € whereas the respective cost when ICU-hospitalization was required was 34,538.6 €.

CONCLUSIONS: Covid-19 is associated with a substantial disease burden and a significant direct healthcare cost. Apart from the above, however, productivity and welfare losses, which do not fall under the scope of the present analysis, can also be a substantial burden to society.