More than five million people have been ordered to undergo Covid-19 testing in the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen this week, after some 40 cases of the virus were detected.

But they're not the only ones who have been ordered to get tested: an official notice states that some forms of sealife are also expected to join the latest mass-testing drive.

In recent weeks, Xiamen's Jimei Maritime Pandemic Control district committee issued a notice saying that when fishermen return to their ports "both fishermen and their seafood must be tested".

The result has been that amid this latest outbreak, video footage has appeared on multiple social media platforms including Douyin - China's local version of TikTok - showing medical workers giving live fish and crabs Covid-19 PCR tests.

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'Not the only place doing this'
While this might look unusual, this is not the first time that live fish have been tested for Covid-19.

An employee at the Xiamen Municipal Oceanic Development Bureau told the South China Morning Post newspaper: "We've taken lessons from Hainan, which is witnessing a severe outbreak.

"It's said that it may be triggered by marine product transactions between local fishermen and their overseas counterparts."