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The COVID-19 pandemic has left other pathologies commonly present in the population in a secondary context. Therefore, it is necessary to study the evolution of these diseases in the presence or absence of COVID-19.ObjectivesThe present study had the following objectives: 1. To evaluate the relationship between the COVID-19 epidemic and the possible decrease in deaths from respiratory diseases in Chile. 2 Study the relationship between meteorological variables and severity of COVID-19 with respect to deaths from respiratory diseases from January 2018 to February 2021.MethodsThe variable number of deaths due to respiratory diseases in Chile was analyzed considering the monthly records of meteorological variables (temperature, precipitation and humidity) in each Region of Chile and severity of COVID-19, to evaluate the mortality trend before and after the pandemic. For this, different Non-Observable Heterogeneity Models for Panel Data were usedResultsOur findings show that among the variables that affect the mortality rate from respiratory diseases, there are the number of deaths from COVID-19 that has a negative effect, the number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care unit (ICU) that has a positive effect and the minimum temperature with a negative effect. These results are supported by the application of the panel regression with one-way random-effects models.ConclusionThis study revealed that there is an unexpected reduction in deaths from respiratory diseases in Chile in the post-pandemic period. Therefore, it can be concluded that this variable decreased with the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic.