No, Harvey Weinstein Doesn’t Have COVID Again

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Harvey Weinstein has tested negative for COVID-19, his reps said Thursday. The test result comes several days after TMZ reported that he was extremely ill and a suspected COVID-19 case; Weinstein underwent a coronavirus test on Tuesday.

“We can report that Mr. Weinstein’s fever has dropped but is still being closely monitored. We can also report at this time that he does not have COVID-19,� said Juda Engelmayer, his spokesman, and Craig Rothfeld, his authorized state Department of Corrections health rep, in an email statement. “Mr. Weinstein continues to be very closely monitored due to the plethora of underlying health issues which are continuing to decline, get worse, and need treatment.�

This week’s COVID drama wasn’t the first time Weinstein was reported to potentially have the coronavirus. In late March, shortly after his arrival at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison near Buffalo, several reports said Weinstein had tested positive.

The chances of getting COVID-19 twice appear to be infinitesimally slim, so it makes sense that Weinstein wouldn’t get coronavirus again months after he already appeared to have it.

When Weinstein was first thought to have COVID-19 in March, one of his lawyers told Vulture that Weinstein was placed in isolation as a precaution after arriving at Wende because of coronavirus concerns at New York City’s Rikers Island jail, where he had been locked up before being moved to prison.

Engelmayer told Vulture on Thursday that Weinstein was tested before going to Wende in March. The results were not publicly announced.

The state prisons department did not immediately respond to a request for information about how many Wende inmates have COVID-19. However, New York State prisons have recently seen surges in coronavirus infections, according to reports.

Weinstein has long had health issues. Before being transferred upstate, he was moved between Rikers and Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated for heart problems.

On February 24, a Manhattan jury found Weinstein guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape, and on March 11, Justice James Burke sentenced him to 23 years in prison. Weinstein still faces a litany of charges in Los Angeles for alleged sexual assaults.

The coronavirus has impacted Weinstein’s California case. His extradition to the state was delayed because the pandemic got in the way of processing paperwork, L.A. prosecutors previously said.