The development of sensitive, fast, and more reliable diagnostic methods to prevent and control the outbreak of life-threatening pandemic infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, according to the WHO recommendations, is always in priority and necessity. Optical diagnostic methods, with their progress in technology, are central to most applications and now, in the health field, are an alternative to conventional methods because of their great sensitivity and capability utilized for SARS-CoV-2 detection such as generally applied PCR technology which is time-consuming, effortful, and has limited availability in resource-limited situations. Herein, we reviewed various optical methods engaged for virus detection such as fluorescence-based techniques, Raman spectroscopy (RS), Plasmonic methods (e.g., SPR, LSPR, SEF, and SERS), ATR-FTIR, super-resolution microscopy (SRM), and some integrated platforms like waveguides and MIP-based biosensors for the development of portable, sensitive, specific, and low-cost POC apparatus for the rapid virus detection.