Coronavirus tsar Mike Pence is jetting off to Florida for a Republican fundraiser on Friday amid the health crisis that's causing fear among the country.

The vice president was announced this week as being the lead person appointed by President Donald Trump to handle the containment of the high-spreading coronavirus in the US, shocking health officials including, reportedly, Trump's own health secretary.

Trump's decision comes as the stock market is having its worst week since 2008 and the first known case of the coronavirus in America not linked to travel in China has surfaced.

On Thursday, Pence organised a coronavirus task force meeting to discuss the impending pandemic, which the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said is not a matter of if but when.

He also visited the Secretary's Operation Centre at Health and Human Services.

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitÃ Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

Amid the health crisis, Pence is choosing to still travel to Florida as a "special guest" for the Republican Party fundraiser, which is set to take place Friday evening.

People attending the fundraiser in Longboat Key, Florida, can pay $2,500 to attend, $5,000 to also receive a selfie with the vice president, and $25,000 to dine with the man, according to an invitation obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

The Florida trip was scheduled before Trump announced on Wednesday he would be putting the coronavirus on Pence's plate.

Pence's team potentially anticipated the backlash the vice president would receive for attending the fundraiser amid the health crisis. An item on his agenda titled "Florida coronavirus response meeting" was added before he left Washington DC.

Katie Miller, the vice president's press secretary, also said Pence would be hosting coronavirus task force meetings on Friday and Saturday in Washington, according to CNN.

The decision to nominate Pence to lead the coronavirus response in the US faced backlash, with people bringing up the vice president's previous history when dealing with health crises.

When he was governor of Indiana, the state faced an HIV epidemic in 2014. One study in 2018 from the Lancet Medical Journal said the number of those infected by HIV would've been lower had the vice president acted sooner to the public health crisis.