GPs can safely resume spirometry but should take every patient’s temperature first, to check they are afebrile, says the National Asthma Council Australia.

In late March, the council had urged GPs to stop performing non-essential spirometry, as a measure to protect themselves, staff and other patients from COVID-19 during the “containment phase” of the pandemic.

Most patients with asthma could be managed without spirometry in the short-term, even if it was not best practice, Professor Amanda Barnard, chair of the council’s guidelines committee, said at the time.

Spirometry could spread infected droplets in the air even when patients were asymptomatic and those respiratory plumes can contain virus particles for hours, the council warned.