 The Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre closed on 30 September 2018.On 13 February 2019 the Morrison government announced it would re-open the centre, after Australia's parliament passed legislation giving sick asylum seekers easier access to mainland hospitals.During the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak the government opened parts of the Immigration Reception and Processing Centre to be used as a quarantine facility to accommodate Australian citizens who had been in Wuhan, the point of origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.