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For the second time in six months, parts of Sydney were thrust into lockdown on June 25 as the Delta strain of COVID-19 spread rapidly throughout the city.

A stay-at-home order that began with seven local government areas was widened a day later to include all of Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

It was extended by another week on July 7 and tightened further today, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian warning it will not end until there is a "dramatic change" in daily case numbers.

Data analysis conducted by 9news.com.au has revealed just how much more the current COVID-19 outbreak has spread compared to the previous Northern Beaches one, which placed half of the peninsula under strict stay-at-home orders for three weeks over the Christmas period.

As seen in the graphic below, the findings show the cluster has not "flattened out" in the manner last year's Avalon cluster had at similar stages of the outbreak.

Instead, cases continue to rise.

While the growth is steady rather than exponential, it is a worrying sign as NSW continues to struggle to contain the Delta strain outbreak.

On the first day of the December-January lockdown on the Northern Beaches, the Avalon cluster was at 68 cases.

On the first day of this lockdown, the Bondi cluster had reached 110 cases.

Ten days into the Northern Beaches lockdown, the Avalon cluster had nearly doubled to 129 cases.

But at the same point in this current lockdown, the Bondi cluster had increased by 145 cases, ballooning to 2.5 times its size at the start of the lockdown.

In the three following days (day 11, 12 and 13), the Avalon cluster increased by 15 cases, whereas the Bondi cluster increased by double that amount, by 30 cases.

Worryingly, there also appears to be an unlinked cluster of cases emerging.

On July 7, NSW Health reported there were 25 cases unlinked to a known case or cluster, with a further 68 which are linked to those 25 unlinked infections.

Today, that has jumped to 37 unlinked cases, with 117 further cases linked to those.

Additionally, though the numbers do vacillate day-to-day, the current outbreak does not display the general downward trend in daily local acquired cases that the Avalon outbreak did at this same point in time.

On day 13 of the Northern Beaches lockdown, NSW recorded just three new local cases, a significantly lower figure than today's 44-case increase.

The major factor in the increased spread of the current outbreak is the presence of the Delta variant.

Health authorities have repeatedly warned of the increased contagiousness of this variant, which has wreaked deadly havoc in India and elsewhere around the world.

It has been known to spread in hotel quarantine without direct contact between recipients – with even the opening of a door allowing it to enter a communal area.

Health authorities have said every household contact of the current outbreak was becoming infected – a household transmission rate of 100 per cent, compared to about 30 per cent in earlier strains of the virus.

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A number of sharks have circled surfers off Bondi this morning in the middle of a huge bait ball.

About four of the animals were first spotted by a news helicopter about 9.30am, along with at least one stingray.

Aerial shots of the sharks show the sea creatures swimming off the shore with surfers, boogie boarders, and swimmers in close proximity.

They were in the middle of a large bait ball – a school of small fish packed tightly together to protect them from predators.

Surf Lifesaving NSW was alerted and lifeguards at Bondi cleared the water.

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