The history of mankind has been ravaged by numerous pandemics, which have caused damage to the lives of the Earth's inhabitants in the economic, social and health fields. Most of these pandemics have been zoonotic in origin, that is, they have been triggered by viruses housed in a host of animal origin that have eventually infected human beings. Researchers dedicated to searching for and keeping track of the appearance of rare diseases and "hunting" viruses around the world revealed in late 2019 that there are numerous coronaviruses that can affect human beings and cause massive diseases, such as the most recent case provoked by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which triggers the COVID-19 disease. This type of coronavirus, whose origin has been associated with bats and whose massive spread has produced a high mortality rate around the world, has led to the implementation of a global quarantine with safety and public health measures such as the restriction of social coexistence, confinement at home, isolation and social distancing to avoid transmission from person to person as much as possible. The objectives of this work are to present the origin and consequences of the infection by COVID-19 and explain the safety and public health measures to prevent its spread around the world since its progress is alarming and no effective vaccine has been developed so far.