Kigali, 26 October 2020– Today, the Rwanda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, attended the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany through a video conference to discuss the most important issues of global health care.

In his remarks, Minister Ngamije  presented the country’s five-year strategy, and a costed action plan, to tackle non-communicable diseases. This strategy and action plan details how Rwanda is fulfilling its commitment to achieving global Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one-third by 2030.

“Some countries are currently on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 to significantly reduce premature mortality for both men and women from non-communicable diseases by 2030. I am convinced that the current Rwanda strategic plan for the next five years would allow us to make a big step forward,” said Dr. Ngamije, Minister of Health, Rwanda.

Addressing the World Health Summit, Minister Ngamije highlighted that commitment of Rwandans and all health personnel to contain COVID-19 pandemic resulted to the low case fatality rate; however, most of the deaths occurred in patients with pre-existing NCDs.

“More than 70 percent of all COVID-19 related deaths are due to non-communicable diseases. People infected with SARS COV-2 are likely to be severely affected or die if they already have an underlying non-communicable disease. We know how to reduce the risks of non-communicable diseases. If we prevent, reduce and treat non-communicable diseases now, we can reduce COVID-19 deaths.”

During the Summit, Minister Ndamije highlighted that great adherence to public health measures put in place and the massive screening and access to testing and care across the country proved to be effective in tackling NCDs.

The World Health Summit, a three days leading global health conference and network of civil society, academia, politics and the private sector is taking place as a fully digital and interactive conference.