ABC News Suspends Top COVID-19 Reporter For Violating COVID-19 Rules

ABC News has suspended chief national correspondent Matt Gutman for failing to comply with the network's COVID-19 safety policy, as relayed by Deadline.

Neither ABC nor Gutman would comment, but Deadline reported a source as saying Gutman is being punished for entering a hospital to gather information for a story without receiving permission from hospital management first.

Gutman is based in Los Angeles and has recently reported almost exclusively on the pandemic.

"In early January, he reported on hospitals grappling with being able to care for all the rising number of patients, as they sought to also respond to other types of trauma emergencies," Deadline noted.

This marks Gutman's second suspension with ABC News in a little more than a year. He was also suspended in January 2019 for an egregiously inaccurate statement he made on the air immediately following the helicopter crash that killed Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others.

During his live report on the crash, Gutman said that all four of Bryant's daughters daughters had been aboard the helicopter. He later apologized on the air.