Ghislaine Maxwell, the one-time girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, is in quarantine at a New York City federal lock-up after a staff member there tested positive for the coronavirus, prosecutors say.

In a letter to a judge, prosecutors said Maxwell, 58, was put in isolation last Wednesday as a precaution even though she tested negative.

The staff member who tested positive works in the area of the Brooklyn jail where Maxwell is housed, prosecutors said on Monday.

Maxwell has been housed in the Brooklyn Detention Centre since her arrest in July. Photo: AAP

They said Maxwell was not showing symptoms and would be tested again at the conclusion of the two-week quarantine.

The government said she would not be able to meet her lawyers during quarantine.

She is preparing for a July trial on charges alleging she recruited three teenage girls for Epstein to abuse in the 1990s.

Maxwell has been held without bail since her July arrest. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan federal lock-up in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.

An email message seeking comment was sent to Maxwell’s lawyers.