Harvey Weinstein Tests Positive for COVID-19 as Rikers Confirms Disease Outbreak
/Stories that convicted rapist and disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for coronavirus are true. NBC News writes that the president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, Michael Powers confirmed news first reported by The Niagara Gazette on Sunday.
Weinstein was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison near Buffalo, New York from Rikers Island on March 11. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison on March 11, after being found guilty of third-degree rape and first degree criminal sexual act in the courtroom of Manhattan Judge James Burke.
Covid-19 Outbreak at Rikers Island
Before his transfer to Wende, Weinstein was held at Rikers Island Jail, where 38
The Eric M. Taylor Center — which closed earlier this year as part of a bigger plan to eventually completely shut down Rikers Island — reopened its doors Sunday night to help increase social distancing and combat COVID-19, according to a letter from Dr. Ross MacDonald, the Chief Medical Officer at Correctional Health Services.
“We are taking the unprecedented step of opening a closed facility,” MacDonald wrote to staffers on Sunday. In 2019, the New York City Council voted to shut down Rikers, replacing it with four new borough-based jails.
The New York Daily News reports that the island’s Communicable Disease Unit located at West Facility is “filled to the max”. As of Monday morning, 30 inmates and 21 Correction Department staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
Weinstein’s Health Problems Put Him at Greater Risk for COVID-19
Harvey Weinstain spent time at Bellevue Hospital during his time at Rikers, being treated for heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes — all factors putting him at greater risk of contracting the disease sweeping the world.