The current SARS-CoV2 epidemic calls for large scale viral tests. The current testing procedure for the presence of virions involves several steps - pharyngeal/nasal swab, cell/viral lysis, RNA extraction, and an rtPCR assay targeting the viral genome and a human gene as an internal sample control. Improvement of any of these steps in terms of cost, processing time, or reagent availability, could result in a significant increase of testing capacity world-wide.Here, we describe a rapid and efficient home made SPRI-based RNA extraction method from a lysed sample. Our approach can be fully automated, is quick (