Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw, Reuters reports.

Magufuli claimed he tried to vet the quality of the equipment by having his security forces obtain random samples from goats, sheep and a local fruit called a pawpaw, Reuters reported.

The sub-Saharan nation’s leader said he then assigned them human names and ages and delivered them to lab technicians who were unaware of their animal origins, in a bizarre blind test.

The result - both the goats and the pawpaw tested positive for the coronavirus. Currently Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report there’s no evidence that a fruit can contract COVID-19, although a variety of animals have recently been diagnosed with the disease.

“There is something happening. I said before we should not accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation,” Magufuli said, adding the kits should be investigated.

The country’s leader has called the incident “technical error” and refrained from any further comments regarding the origin of those test.

However, many analysts believe that the tests came from China, as similar faulty cases have been confirmed in Spain, US, Netherlands, India and Turkey.  

Reports of faulty Covid-19 testing kits from China have become common this day.

Spain has twice sent the tests back to China after they were found to have low sensibility and the US has accused China for sending low quality tests which resulted in increased number of Covid-19 cases.  

At the same time, the government of Tanzania is being accused of cover-ups by its citizens and the laxity by World Health Organization.

Tanzania was among the first country in Africa to receive medical assistance from China. On March 25^th, Tanzania received 100.000 face masks, 20.000 testing kits and 1,000 protective suits which have been donated by Alibaba Group Founder, Jack Ma.

Officially, Tanzania has 16 deaths caused by the coronavirus and 480 people are infected. However, with a population of 56 million people, many experts believe that the outbreak has spread far across the country and the number of people infected with the deadly virus is a couple of times higher than official reports.    

China is Africa largest trading partner, with more than $208 billion worth of trade in 2019.