Beijing's southern Daxing district, where a cluster of COVID-19 infections was recently found, has encouraged companies and related institutions to provide free housing or rent reduction to immigrant construction workers who will stay in the district for the coming Chinese Lunar New Year in February, a senior official said on Thursday.

To reduce infection risks, the city government has been encouraging citizens to stay in Beijing for the holiday.

Han Xinxing, executive deputy head of Daxing district, said at a news conference companies are encouraged to give extra bonus for employees who stay in Daxing during the holiday, in order to reduce infection risks during travel back to their hometowns.

According to Han, the district has prepared 39 hotels with 3,424 rooms in advance for possible use of isolation locations for centralized quarantine.

In addition, 1,900 rooms in hotels in other districts such as Chaoyang, Fengtai, Shunyi, Fangshan and Miyun are prepared in case of emergency.

By Wednesday, Daxing reported 12 local cases and one asymptomatic case - all from the Ronghui residential community, which is now under lockdown management.