About 80% of the 300,000 COVID-19 test kits that China gave to the Czech Republic are faulty, regional hygienists told Prague Morning this week.

The test kits, which are valued at 54 million korunas or about $2.15 million, have showed false positive and false negative results.

“We used the tests on those who came to the testing station. Fortunately, we also took samples for further testing and thus learned about the error rate of the tests,” said Pavla Svrčinová, a hygienist from the Ostrava region.

"We checked them at the University Hospital in Ostrava, but unfortunately the error rate was quite high. So now we are waiting for the results of further testing across the country, and we are considering using them only with people reach the end of their quarantine and have never tested positive, because it works with antibodies," Svrčinová added, according to Taiwan News.

She said, "We tested those who searched for a sampling point. Fortunately, we were so farsighted that samples were immediately compared with traditional tests, and that just proved the error rate of the [Chinese rapid] tests.”

Expats.cz notes that although China has implied that the tests were given freely, the Czech Health Ministry reportedly paid about 14 million korunas, or $546,000, for about 100,000 test kits, while the country’s Interior Ministry paid for about 50,000 tests.