Data reveals how Delta Covid outbreak spread across Sydney

Data has revealed how the virulent Delta strain tracked across the city from June 16, hitting Bondi before taking hold in southwestern suburbs.

New data has revealed how Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak spread from east to southwest suburbs, turning Fairfield into the epicentre of the outbreak.

More than five weeks after the Delta outbreak began, the city’s west and southwest suburbs remain the biggest area of concern.

The outbreak began on June 16 when a male limo driver in his 60s contracted the Delta strain while transporting international aircrew members.

That sparked a cluster in Bondi and two days later, cases were being reported in Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick and central Sydney.

Southwest Sydney recorded its first case on June 24, and on June 26, stay at home orders were announced for Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

A week later, Fairfield’s cases began to spike.

Epidemiologists believe there may have been undetected cases in the southwest Sydney community before this point, allowing the virus to spread.

A busy Bondi Beach during lockdown in Sydney. Picture: Daily Telegraph/Gaye Gerard

Fairfield in the days before Sydney locked down. It is now under the toughest measures in the state. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Tougher measures were imposed on the Fairfield LGA with residents told not to leave the area for any reason other than authorised essential work.

Seven more LGAs are now under the same strict measures: Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland, Blacktown, Parramatta, Georges River and Campbelltown.

Construction will be permitted to resume with some restrictions in places across Greater Sydney from Saturday but tradies will continue to be banned from work in the eight hot spots.

The Premier also cautioned residents that more police will be in these areas, cracking down on breaches of the public health orders.

There have been 2,574 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June, when the first case in the Bondi cluster was reported.