Abstract INTRODUCTION:

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has limited the access of patients with Hansen's disease (HD) to care due to changes in routine health services.

METHODS:

To ascertain this, we compared the number of HD cases diagnosed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESULTS:

The decrease in HD cases in Brazil reached 18,223 (-48.4%), corresponding to an average reduction of 1,518 cases per month during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CONCLUSION:

Therefore, effective measures should be implemented to minimize the damage and the consequent negative health impact of COVID-19 on the care of HD patients.