Objective:

Severe respiratory syndrome due to coronavirus type 2 is the microorganism responsible for causing COVID-19, a pathology with predominantly respiratory involvement that has a similar behavior to the most common respiratory viral processes. The increase in the number of severe acute respiratory syndrome type 2 cases reported in each country has caused a displacement of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) caused by other pathogens up to 70% of the number of cases reported during the pandemic.

Material and methods:

This study is descriptive and cross-sectional with retrospective data collection from secondary sources using as a source of information the weekly epidemiological bulletins from week 1 of January 2019 to week 53 of December 2020 of the National Epidemiological Surveillance System of the Ministry of Public Health through the General Directorate of Epidemiology.

Results:

A decrease in cases of acute respiratory infection with a respective increase in cases of COVID-19 was observed when comparing the years 2019 and 2020. The province with the highest number of cases was the National District.

Conclusion:

The behavior of severe acute respiratory syndrome type 2 relative to other pathogens needs to be evaluated to identify whether acute respiratory infections will return to a pre-pandemic state when facemask use is no longer necessary severe acute respiratory syndrome type 2 will be the prevalent pathogen.