Assay performance was evaluated for swab samples. All clinical specimens used were collected at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE-HH). Samples were mixed 1:1 with Roche cobas PCR media (≤ 40% guanidine hydrochloride in Tris-HCL buffer) and incubated for 30 min before loading onto the cobas 6800 system. Apart from that sample preparation step, no further manual steps are required during the entire workflow of the novel assay.