Nearly two weeks after he was sent to prison, disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to reports.
Weinstein, 68, is in prison in New York after being sentenced to 23 years in jail for sexual assault and rape. Harvey Weinstein was transferred Wednesday to a prison near Buffalo, 350 miles (560 kilometres) northwest of New York City. Before that, he stayed at Rikers Island prison and a Manhattan hospital, where he was treated for chest pains, AFP reported.
In a verdict hailed by the #MeToo movement, Weinstein was convicted for rape on February 24.
He was found guilty of criminal sex act for assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 and third-degree rape of a woman in 2013. The jury found him not guilty on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault, that could have resulted in a life sentence.
The verdict followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation and lewd propositions.
The conviction was seen as a long-overdue reckoning for Weinstein after years of whispers about his behaviour turned into a torrent of accusations in 2017 that destroyed his career and gave rise to #MeToo, the global movement to encourage women to come forward and hold powerful men accountable for their sexual misconduct.
Nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, have levelled sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein. He had helped bring to the screen Oscar winners such as Good Will Hunting, Pulp Fiction, The King's Speech and Shakespeare in Love and nurtured the careers of celebrated filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.
At least 400 people have died due to the novel coronavirus in the United States with number of positive cases crossing 32,000 on Sunday. According to reports, more than half of these cases are in New York state.
