As the cruise line has had to suspend the launch of its first ship Scarlet Lady in light of the coronavirus outbreak, Virgin Voyages is instead using its time to give praise to other members of the ‘Virgin family’ that are achieving great things during these unprecedented times.

Taking to Twitter, Virgin Voyages praised Virgin Orbit, part of the Virgin Group family, for having developed a new mass-producible bridge ventilator to help in the fight against the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic.

Now more than ever, it's time for us to work together. We're proud to support the ingenuity from @VirginOrbit and our #VirginFamily who are collaborating with @UCIrvine & @UTAustin to mass-produce and supply bridge ventilators to hospitals in need. https://t.co/354ZNE9TmD pic.twitter.com/ko9YAJYnJS

— Virgin Voyages ⚓️ (@VirginVoyages) March 31, 2020

The cruise line tweeted: “Now more than ever, it’s time for us to work together. We’re proud to support the ingenuity from @VirginOrbit and our #VirginFamily who are collaborating with @UCIrvine & @UTAustin to mass-produce and supply bridge ventilators to hospitals in need. https://virg.in/T6f.”

The Virgin Orbit team has been consulting with the Bridge Ventilator Consortium (BVC), led by the University of California Irvine (UCI) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), a group formed to spawn and nurture efforts to build producible, simple ventilators to aid in the current covid-19 crisis.

Pending clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Virgin Orbit aims to commence production at its Long Beach manufacturing facility in early April, in order to deliver units into the hands of first responders and healthcare professionals as soon as possible.

“We face a slow-motion Dunkirk, and getting ventilators out there is very important to save lives,” said Dr. Brian J.F. Wong, assistant chairman of otolaryngology at UCI.

“The demand outstrips supply, so it is important the government, industry, academia, non-profits, and the community work together to identify solutions, and design and construct them as fast as possible.”

The company’s goal is to have a functioning, deployable bridge ventilator in production in early April. Virgin Orbit would continue on to rapidly scale up to mass production in its Long Beach facility, in addition to potentially activating other manufacturers as soon as the new device is reproducible and production-ready.

“We are all heartbroken each night as we turn on the news and see the predicament facing doctors and nurses as they heroically work to save lives,” said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart.

“I have never seen our team working harder. Never seen ideas moving quicker from design to prototype. We are hopeful that this device can help as we all prepare for the challenges ahead.”

Last month, Virgin Voyages announced that it was postponing the inaugural season of Scarlet Lady until 15 July 2020, with the maiden voyage now taking place on 7 August 2020.