Abstract Following acute COVID‐19 infection, unvaccinated patients have been reported to exhibit elevated alveolar deadspace ( ̇V D,alv / ̇V T ) and intrapulmonary shunt ( ̇Q s / ̇Q T ) fractions. However, as there is uncertainty surrounding the upper limits of normal for ̇V D,alv / ̇V T and ̇Q s / ̇Q T , we sought to replicate the findings from a separate, previously reported cohort of COVID‐19 patients that also included a healthy control group never infected with COVID‐19. Data from 81 participants, classified into four different groups based on the severity of prior COVID‐19 infection, were used. All participants had arterial blood‐gas samples drawn while highly precise measurements of their respiratory gas exchange were made. The gas exchange data were used to estimate alveolar and , and the differences between these values and the corresponding arterial blood‐gas values provided the alveolar–arterial gradients from which ̇V D,alv / ̇V T and ̇Q s / ̇Q T were calculated. Mean ̇V D,alv / ̇V T was 0.115 ± 0.062 and mean ̇Q s / ̇Q T was 0.014 ± 0.011. No significant differences between the groups, including the uninfected control group, were detected for either ̇V D,alv / ̇V T or ̇Q s / ̇Q T , although if severity was instead treated as an interval measure, then a small increase in ̇Q s / ̇Q T with severity ( P = 0.00934) could be detected. Many participants, including controls, exceeded the originally proposed upper limit of normal for ̇V D,alv / ̇V T , whereas no participant exceeded the originally proposed upper limit for ̇Q s / ̇Q T . We conclude that prior infection with COVID‐19 had no effect on ̇V D,alv / ̇V T and little effect on ̇Q s / ̇Q T , and that the supposedly high values of ̇V D,alv / ̇V T are within the normal range.