According to a breaking story on Sky News. convicted rapist, Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for the coronavirus at New York City’s Rikers Island jail.
He has now been placed in isolation at Wende Correctional facility, a maximum-security prison east of Buffalo, New York.
News of his being infected with the virus was confirmed by a US federal prison union official. In the article, also posted on their Twitter feed, they said that the president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, Michael Powers, had learned that Weinstein's test had come back positive on Sunday morning. Several prison staff have since also been quarantined.
A lawyer for Weinstein, Imran Ansari said: "Given Mr Weinstein's state of health, we are of course concerned, if this is the case, and we are vigilantly monitoring the situation."
Coronavirus: Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein tests positive in prison https://t.co/KwYOsdgMXK
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 23, 2020
Sixty eight-year-old Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence for sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
His conviction was hailed as a major leap forward for the #MeToo movement, a movement which works to expose sexual misconduct by men in powerful positions.
The landmark Weinstein trial brought to light more than 100 women, including A-list actresses, who claimed to have been sexually abused by Weinstein. Weinstein continues to deny the allegations, saying any sex was consensual.
The once much-lauded film producer co-founded the entertainment giant Miramax with his brother Bob Weinstein. Together they brought movies such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape, The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love to the big screen. Weinstein went on to win an Oscar for Best Producer for Shakespeare in Love in1999. After leaving Miramax, Weinstein and his brother Bob founded The Weinstein Company of which he was co-chairman, alongside Bob, from 2005 to 2017.
In October 2017, following the sexual abuse allegations Weinstein was dismissed from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Weinstein, now in quarantine at Wende Correctional Facility, is known as inmate No. 20B0584.
