NSW’s Bondi outbreak becomes the biggest the state has seen yet – and it’s only getting worse

A disturbing graph has highlighted how Sydney’s current cluster has dramatically outperformed the Northern Beaches outbreak.

The booming coronavirus outbreak in NSW could see the state stripped of its “gold standard” reputation with the Bondi cluster becoming the biggest the state has seen yet.

Covid-19 cases linked to an original Bondi outbreak have exceeded those recorded in the Berala, Avalon, Thai Rock Wetherill Park and the Crossroads Hotel outbreaks.

The 22 new cases recorded on Wednesday pushed the number of cases in the current outbreak to 171 – far exceeding the Northern Beaches peak of 151.

Even more concerning was the fact it was the Delta variant being spread, which health authorities have warned is more transmissible than previous strains.

“This isn’t a sleeper variant … when you look at the pattern of spread, it seems that most people are passing it on to more than one person,” Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett told the ABC.

“Not only are more close contacts more likely to be infected, but they’re also more likely to see cases among those casual contacts. And what we do know about Delta is that it seems to give you a high viral load a little bit quicker.”

The fast-moving strain has increased the load on health workers, who now have an even smaller window of opportunity to identify close contacts to enforce their testing and isolation.

“It’s just making it harder for the normal test, trace and isolate process to work because no matter how fast they are and how adequate that was before, now your clock is at even tighter intervals where you have to identify those contacts,” Professor Bennett told the publication.

Sydney has endured 18 clusters in total which have, on average, lasted 21 days.

Health workers at the St Vincent’s Hospital drive-through testing clinic at Bondi Beach. Picture: Steven Saphore/AFP

The Northern Beachers outbreak lasted 27 days and spawned 151 cases, while the Wetherill Park outbreak had 116 cases and lasted 26 days.

Fifty eight cases were linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster, which lasted 24 days, and 35 cases were linked to the 19-day Berala outbreak.

Fourteen days after the first case connected to Bondi was recorded, 141 cases have been connected and authorities have indicated that number is likely to continue rising.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian previously revealed health advice had suggested the Delta variant could be twice as transmissible as other strains.

Transmission events captured on CCTV previously identified the virus infecting someone through a “fleeting” interaction, health officials revealed.

The Delta variant had also been found by UK researchers to be 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha strain.

Greater Sydney is days into a two week full lockdown designed to stamp out community transmission of the Delta variant for good.