Two million protective masks purchased by Finland from China have turned out to be unsuitable for use in hospitals, the Finnish government admitted on Wednesday.

On Tuesday Finland's Health minister Aino-Kaisa Pekonen had tweeted a picture of the first shipment of two million surgical masks and 230,000 respirator masks being unloaded at Helsinki airport on a Finnair flight from Guangzhou in China, saying they would be "checked and tested" before use. But by Wednesday, officials discovered that the face masks did not meet the required standards of protection against the coronavirus for use in medical environments.

"Of course this was a bit of a disappointment for us," health ministry permanent secretary Kirsi Varhila told a news conference.

However she said that it would be possible to use the masks in residential care facilities and for carers making home visits. Other European countries had met similar problems after ordering equipment from China, due to the "extremely chaotic" Chinese facemask market, Tomi Lounema, head of Finland's preparedness unit, told the news conference. "Prices are going up all the time, purchases have to be made quickly and paid for in advance," Lounema said.