Jails across the nation are set to release certain inmates due to the spread of COVID-19.

According to the BBC, New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to release 'vulnerable' prisoners.

This announcement was made Wednesday, days after Los Angeles and Cleveland freed hundreds of inmates, and only hours after a guard and a prisoner at Rikers Island prison tested positive for novel coronavirus.

This is the very same prison where disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is incarcerated.

On Wednesday, officials confirmed that the 68-year-old will be moved from Rikers Island to Wende Correctional Facility in New York's Erie County.

Other New York prisons, such as Sing Sing, have had inmates test positive for coronavirus and one employee for the state's corrections department has died from it.

The move to release inmates came after prison reform advocates insisted that prisoners are at higher risk of catching and passing novel coronavirus due to their close proximity with one another. 

There have been more than 9,400 cases of Covid-19 and 152 deaths in the US so far, according to estimates.

Globally there are some 220,000 confirmed cases and over 8,800 deaths.