The isolation of pure nucleic acids from clinical samples is a crucial step in the molecular diagnosis of viral infections by nucleic acid testing (NAT). In this study, novel flat glass devices (cards) were demonstrated to support the rapid and efficient extraction of nucleic acids from upper respiratory tract specimens (nasal washes and swabs). The performance of the nucleic acid extraction cards was directly compared to an existing standardized and automated platform for viral extraction from these types of specimens. The flowthrough card method improved the speed of nucleic acid purification and accommodated larger sample volumes in extraction of bacteriophage MS2 RNA from the various specimen matrices. The dynamic range and estimated sensitivity of the card extraction method for reverse transcriptase quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR)-based detection approximate those of the standardized magnetic glass bead extraction method used in this study.