Customers enjoy hotpot at a restaurant in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, March 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Mengxin)

Free hot pot for a year! Sichuan restaurants promise to treat medical workers who have assisted the hardest-hit Hubei Province amid the COVID-19 outbreak to free hot pot meals.

CHENGDU, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of hot pot restaurants in southwest China's Sichuan Province have promised to treat medical workers who have assisted the hardest-hit Hubei Province amid the COVID-19 outbreak to free hot pot meals in the rest of the year, said the Sichuan Hot Pot Association.

A total of 348 hot pot restaurants in Sichuan, famous for its spicy cuisine, have responded to the call of treating medical workers to free meals as a way to pay their respects and tribute.

Medical staffers from southwest China's Sichuan Province wave goodbye at the Wuhan Railway Station in central China's Hubei Province, March 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)

Medics can refer to a mobile application to find nearby restaurants offering the year-long privilege and enjoy the free meals with either their ID card or work identity card. A 20 percent percent discount will also be provided for those who dine with those medical workers.

According to the association, medics who have assisted Italy will also be included in the free meal project.

Sichuan has sent over 1,400 medical workers to Hubei since the outbreak of COVID-19.