Effect of DNase I treatment on Taq DNA polymerase-mediated RT-qPCR assay. Taq DNA polymerase purchased from NEB was used to operate CDC SARS-CoV-2 N1, N2, and N3 TaqMan RT-qPCR assays using SARS-CoV-2 viral genomic RNA (panels A-C) or N gene armored RNA (panels D-F) treated with DNase I in duplicate experiments. Amplification curves shown in panels A-C resulted from 6000 (black traces), 600 (red traces), 60 (blue traces), 6 (pink traces), and 0 (gray traces) copies of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA. Amplification curves in panels D-F resulted from 30,000 (black traces), 3,000 (red traces), 300 (blue traces), 30 (pink traces) and 0 (gray traces) copies of N gene armored RNA. Representative Ct values for RT-qPCR amplification of indicated copies of untreated and DNase I treated SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA and N gene armored RNA are tabulated.