Rapid and sensitive screening of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is essential to limit the spread of the global pandemic we are facing. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is currently used for the clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection using nasopharyngeal swabs, tracheal aspirates, or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples. Despite the high sensitivity of the qRT-PCR method, false negative outcomes might occur, especially in patients with a low viral load. Here, we developed a multiplex qRT-PCR methodology for the simultaneous detection of SARS-CoV-2 genome (N gene) and of the human RNAse P gene as internal control. We found that multiplex qRT-PCR was effective in detecting SARS-Cov-2 infection in human specimens with 100% sensitivity. Notably, patients with few copies of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (
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