Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein tested positive for the deadly coronavirus.
A local newspaper reports that the shamed Hollywood mogul is now in isolation at Wende Correctional Facility in western New York.
Officials believe that the disgraced producer had been carrying the virus during his transfer from Rikers Island last Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Weinstein was hospitalized at the Bellevue Hospital for chest pains, before sending him to Wende.
The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesperson Thomas Mailey could not confirm whether or not Weinstein was indeed infected by the dreaded illness.
“The Department cannot comment on an individual’s medical record. However, we can confirm that two of the Department’s approximately 43,000 incarcerated individuals, both at Wende Correctional Facility, have confirmed cases.”
Reports however claim that a New York law enforcement official confirmed that Weinstein has indeed tested positive.
New York City has been hit hard by the coronavirus jail outbreak this week, with 38 confirmed cases at the Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities.
Meanwhile, others questioned how Weinstein was able to get tested quickly, despite the shortages on test kits.
Eric Blank of the Association of Public Health Laboratories said that there are “acute, serious shortages across the board.”
Their group and two other public health organizations suggests that testing be scaled back because of “real, immediate, wide-scale shortages.”
Even the board in charge of New York City jails suggests to release vulnerable populations and people held on low-level offenses as the outbreak reached the Rikers Island complex.
The Board of Correction interim chairperson Jacqueline Sherman wrote to New York’s criminal justice leaders, “Fewer people in the jails will save lives and minimize transmission among people in custody as well as staff.”
Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence after a jury convicted him of onr count of third-degree rape and one count of first-degree criminal sexual assault.