Health experts are preparing for a "nightmare scenario" in Australia, with early data from both overseas examples and the local outbreak showing the Delta strain is more severe as well as being harder to contain. Health workers taking swab samples from residents at a Covid-19 drive-through testing clinic in Sydney on 28 July, 2021. Photo: AFP or/ Saeed Khan The warning comes as early data from the NSW outbreak shows more people are in hospital intensive care wards than during the peak of Victoria's second-wave outbreak, which had substantially more active cases. The raw data from NSW is backed up by early studies out of Canada, Scotland and Singapore, which show the Delta strain appears to be associated with a higher risk of hospitalisation and death.