Convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for COVID-19, according to reports.
The disgraced Hollywood producer is currently serving a 23-year term in prison, after being found guilty of a criminal sexual act and rape in the third degree.
Weinstein is now in isolation at Wende Correctional Facility in New York, an Empire State law enforcement official confirmed to Deadline. He is reportedly one of two inmates at the maximum security prison who have tested positive for coronavirus. A New York State Department of Corrections spokesperson also confirmed to The Daily Beast that two inmates at the facility have tested positive for the virus, but did not name either individual.
Weinstein’s spokesperson on Sunday, Juda Engelmayer, could not confirm the diagnosis, telling The Daily Beast that his team “has not heard anything like that yet”.
Weinstein was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility on March 18. The Niagara Gazette, the paper that first reported on Weinstein’s condition, believes he had already contracted the virus when he entered the state prison system.
President of the New York State Correctional Officers, Michael Powers couldn’t comment on the report due to privacy protocol. However, he did say that the union has asked state corrections officials to suspend all “non essential” transfers of inmates from on state facility to another.
“There is no better breeding ground for this virus than a closed environment such as a correctional facility,” Powers said.
Weinstein is guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raping former actor Jessica Mann in 2013.
