During a sudden viral pandemic, where the pathogenesis and nature of the infection are unclear, early and accurate identification of the patients infected with the pandemiccausing pathogen is crucial to prevent excess mortality. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, early diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is limited by the incidence of the symptoms that are shared with acute respiratory illnesses (ARI) caused by other pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. Although pathogen-specific diagnosis methods like reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) remain gold-standard for SARS-COV-2 diagnosis, they also have several disadvantages, such as false negatives due to low or fluctuating viral loads and long processing time with the expertise needed for handling. The host immune response to different pathogen infections can be utilized for pathogen-specific diagnosis. This emerging approach has been shown to differentiate between bacterial and viral infections accurately. Identifying SARS-CoV-2 specific host transcriptome gene classifiers that can differentiate ARI caused by SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens can aid in the early diagnosis of COVID-19 patients.