Leaked NHS data from the UK has revealed that more than half of Covid hospitalisations were from people who tested positive for the virus after being admitted.

The leaked data, which covers all NHS trusts in England, showed that, as of July 22, just 44 per cent of patients labelled as being hospitalised with the virus had tested positive by the time they were admitted.

According to The Telegraph, the figures suggest the vast numbers are being classed as hospitalised by Covid when they were admitted with other ailments, with the virus picked up by routine testing.

The publication revealed: “The majority of cases were not detected until patients underwent standard Covid tests, carried out on everyone admitted to hospital for any reason.”

Data obtained by The Telegraph showed, overall, 56 per cent of Covid hospitalisations fell into this category.

“Crucially, this group does not distinguish between those admitted because of severe illness, later found to be caused by the virus, and those in hospital for different reasons who might otherwise never have known that they had picked it up,” the report said.

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford told The Telegraph: “This data is incredibly important, and it should be published on an ongoing basis.

“When people hear about hospitalisations with Covid, they will assume that Covid is the likely cause, but this data shows something quite different — this is about Covid being detected after testing were looking for it.

“This needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency,” he added, saying published data could lead the public “towards false conclusions.”

What this could also suggest is that people admitted to the hospital, who died due to other medical issues, would have been listed as a Covid death if they were to die with the virus, suggesting the virus is more deadly than it actually is.