Fig. 2

Detection of a control human RNase P (RP) gene (a) and virus-specific N1/N2 genes* (b) in self-collected nasal swabs by direct RT-qPCR; the specimen was heat inactivated before the PCR analysis. To avoid false-negative results in the RT-qPCR, the human RP gene had to be investigated to control for proper specimen collection and amplification reaction inhibition. Positive (red line) and negative (black line) controls from direct RT-qPCR (DIOS-RT-qPCR Kit) were included in each run. *The RT-qPCR setup, primers and probe sequences have been reported previously [15]