Isolation and Amplification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Nasopharyngeal Specimen v1

COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Classical symptoms associated with the infection include fever, cough, chills, headache, and muscle aches amongst others. To effectively diagnose the infection and contain its spread, efficient diagnostic tools are required. The current gold standard for the confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection is RT-PCR, this protocol outlines procedures for the isolation and amplification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from Nasopharyngeal specimens using the Zymo Quick-RNA Viral Kit and Allplex 2019nCoV Assay Kit respectively.