Ghislaine Maxwell is in quarantine after a jail staffer tested positive for COVID-19

• Ghislaine Maxwell has been placed into quarantine after a staff member at her jail tested positive for the novel coronavirus, prosecutors said.
• Maxwell herself tested negative with a rapid test and is not exhibiting symptoms, according to prosecutors.
• The Jeffrey Epstein associate has been jailed on charges of grooming minors for sex, participating in sexual abuse herself, and lying in a deposition. She's pleaded not guilty.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been put into quarantine after a staff member at the Metropolitan Detection Center in Brooklyn, where she is jailed, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Maxwell's isolation was made public after federal prosecutors told Judge Alison Nathan, who is overseeing her federal prosecution case, about her condition.

The prosecutors said Maxwell tested negative for the coronavirus after taking a rapid test on Wednesday, November 18, and doesn't have any COVID-19 symptoms. The same day, she was placed in quarantine for a period that will end after two weeks, which prosecutors said is standard procedure in the correctional facility.

"As with any other quarantined inmate, the defendant will remain in quarantine for fourteen days, at which point she will be tested again for COVID-19," prosecutors wrote in the letter to Nathan. "If that test is negative, she will then be released from quarantine."

Maxwell was arrested and jailed in July on charges related to her association with Jeffrey Epstein. A grand jury indictment found that she groomed minors for sexual acts, participated in sexual abuse herself, and lied about her activities in a deposition. She's pleaded not guilty to the charges.

While in quarantine, Maxwell will remain in her same jail cell, prosecutors said, and will continue to receive daily visits from medical and psychology staff. Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his own jail cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Brooklyn in August 2019, an event viewed widely as embarrassing for the Bureau of Prisons.

For months, prosecutors and Maxwell's defense attorneys have been fighting in court over Maxwell's ability to review evidence in her criminal case. Prosecutors assured Nathan in their letter that she will continue to have up to 13 hours each day to review discovery material on her laptop, and will also continue to be able to have phone calls and exchange emails with her lawyers.

"As was the case three months ago, the defendant continues to have more time to review her discovery than any other inmate at the MDC, even while in quarantine," the prosecutors wrote. "The defendant also has as much, if not more, time as any other MDC inmate to communicate with her attorneys, even while in quarantine."

In a letter filed in court Tuesday, Maxwell's lawyers complained she is "overmanaged," didn't receive a toothbrush when she was first put into quarantine, and needs even more time to review the material for her criminal case.

"Given the voluminous discovery in this case, the most recent production alone being 1.2 million documents, the time accorded Ms. Maxwell remains inadequate for her to review and prepare the defense of her life," Maxwell attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote.

This article has been updated.