Virgin Voyages has cancelled Scarlet Lady’s March introduction events in New York in light of the coronavirus outbreak, the line has announced.

The ship will instead sail straight to its homeport of Miami.

A spokesperson said: “Virgin Voyages has made the decision to postpone our upcoming events in New York City and will sail back to New York at a later date for a proper launch celebration.

“We believe delaying the launch celebration is the right thing to do given public sentiment and focus at this time. We have absolutely no health concerns or issues on board and there are no issues with our passengers or crew.

“With no other events scheduled in New York at this time, we will instead sail the ship to her new home in Miami. The 850 passengers currently on the ship are friends and family of our crew and were invited to join a complimentary test sailing with us. We are working with those who need assistance for travel home from Florida.

Last month, the ship opened its doors in Dover to media and trade partners where it announced the launch of Voyage Store, a dedicated packaging platform for travel agents.

Speaking on board Scarlet Lady, associate vice president of international sales, Shane Riley, said: “Our sales have exceeded expectations. We had a share that we thought the UK would deliver and that was between 10-15 per cent, but we’ve been exceeding that comfortably.

“The UK was expected to really come to the party for the Mediterranean and that will start to kick in now as we get through to spring where people start thinking ‘right, what’s my summer holiday next year’.

“When I joined Virgin Voyages we thought the UK was going to be a smaller piece of the pie than it has turned out to be.

“That’s why we took on a team on the UK – the original plan was that I wouldn’t get a team until the end of this year. We got a team almost a year earlier than planned.”

For the latest information and updates on coronavirus, visit gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus.