Recently, there has been an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in Guangdong province in mainland China. Between November 2002 and March 2003, there were 792 reported cases with 31 fatalities (WHO. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Weekly Epidemiol Rec. 2003; 78: 86). Patients with SARS show various clinical symptoms, including fever (of 38 degrees Celsius or above for over 24 hours), malaise, chills, headache and body ache. Chest X-rays show changes compatible with pneumonia. Other symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing. By 3 May 2003, a cumulative total number of 1621 cases and 179 deaths had been occurred in Hong Kong, which contributed to 26% and 41% of the global reported cases (6234) and deaths (435) respectively. As the disease is highly contagious and spreads in daily-life activities, it is important to develop a rapid and reliable diagnosis test to monitor and control the disease. In response to this crisis, the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong has increased the surveillance on patients with severe atypical pneumonia. In the course of this investigation, a number of clusters of health care workers with the disease were identified. In addition, there were clusters of pneumonia incidents among persons in close contact with those infected. The disease was unusual in its severity and its progression in spite of the antibiotic treatment typical for the bacterial pathogens that are known to be commonly associated with atypical pneumonia. The present inventors were one of the groups involved in the investigation of these patients. All tests for identifying commonly recognized viruses and bacteria were negative in these patients. Furthermore, diagnostic tests for the detection of other genes in the hSARS virus, such as the 1b-gene are not useful to accurately diagnose SARS. The disease was given the acronym Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (“SARS”). This virus mutates and changes rapidly and hence the diagnostic of SARS was extremely difficult until the isolation of particular regions of the virus, the N-gene and S-gene, of the hSARS virus from the SARS patients by the present inventors as disclosed herein. Namely, the present invention discloses a diagnostic assay using particular regions in the genome of the virus for rapid, accurate, reliable and specific identification of the hSARS virus. The invention is useful in both clinical and scientific research applications. Furthermore, the present invention provides a high-throughput assay which can be used as a sensitive method for diagnosis and monitoring the spread of the SARS.