Two Victorians have spoken out about the debilitating effects of suffering from long COVID-19.

Will, an athlete and then 23, shared his story at Victoria's COVID-19 media conference today revealing that 18 months on, he was still suffering from relapses of crippling exhaustion.

Kim Hanrahan, 49, contracted 14 months ago and said she now feels as if she has "aged 10 years" struggling with fatigue.

We have republished their full statements from the media conference below.

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Will's battle with long COVID

I contracted COVID in March of last year, three days after returning home from America.

I'd been studying at college in Boston. I've been battling long COVID ever since.

The initial illness was incredibly frightening. The feeling of straining against your own body, trying to expand your lungs against this invisible force, struggling to breathe.

But it was, in medical terms, a "mild" case. I wasn't hospitalised. I was never in ICU. And I was officially cleared after a couple of weeks.

And what a lot of people don't realise is that even a mild case of COVID can turn into long COVID, which can severely impact your life there far longer than you would imagine.

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The conversations around COVID often focus on two drastically different ends of the spectrum.

Hospitalisations and death on the one hand, mild symptoms and quick recovery on the other.

But I'm here to tell you that the distance between these two extremes is massive and that's where long COVID lives.

And having inhabited that space for the last 18 months, take my word for it – it's not a place you want to be.

Long COVID is real, it's random and it's characterised by periods of remission interspersed with intense symptom flare-ups.

It can take many forms and, for me, that meant months after my diagnosis I still couldn't walk around the block without getting lightheaded and needing to lie down, struggling to breathe.

I was 23 and had just come off the back of four years of division one college athletics, training two times a day, six days a week.

Now I had such debilitating fatigue that I sometimes couldn't even get out of bed.

These days, a relapse can be brought on by something as simple as walking the dog or going for a kick of the footy.

The physical impacts are lessening over time. I can now go through long stretches where I'm mostly OK.

But I'm still nowhere near normal.

Long COVID takes its toll in many ways, and it's the invisible impacts that mentally wear you down.

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The shame of constantly having to tell people that you're still not better yet.

The frustration you feel with your own body that you just can't seem to get over this postviral syndrome.

And the constant fear and anxiety that, at any moment, the symptoms can come back.

I know there are many who have had things far worse than I have, and I'm definitely not here to cry "poor me".

In many ways, I've been incredibly lucky. Instead, I'm keen to do anything I can to help get the vaccination message out there.

It doesn't matter how young you are, it doesn't matter how fit you are and it doesn't matter how indestructible you feel.

COVID can still hit you and you don't have to be on a ventilator to have your life turned upside-down for months, or maybe even years.

Why take that risk?

There were no vaccinations available when I got sick.

There was nothing I could do. Nothing any of us could do.

I felt so powerless for such a long time.

But we're not powerless anymore. We can fight back.

And we can now protect ourselves and those we love.

We can get vaccinated.

'I feel like I've aged 10 years'

My name is Kim Hanrahan.

I'm 49 and I live in Newport with my husband Dave and our nine-year-old twin boys Sam and Charlie.

Late last July, my husband and I contracted COVID from our house cleaner.

We were very careful and stayed upstairs while she cleaned downstairs and then vice-versa.

She wore a mask, as did we.

Although Dave had asthma, he was fortunate enough to only get mild symptoms.

A few days later, I started to go downhill rapidly.

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By day 11, I continued to be bedridden, unable to sleep, with body aches and pains that not even strong pain relief could mask.

I couldn't finish a sentence without difficulty breathing.

I didn't know if this was as bad as it was going to get but didn't know how it could get any worse.

It was during my daily COVID call with DHHS that I was unable to talk properly – they, thankfully, realised how unwell I was and advised me to call an ambulance straight away.

With a very low blood oxygen level, I was taken to Footscray Hospital's emergency department.

I was put on oxygen and given steroids and medication to help combat the disease.

I went into ICU for six days, so lucky to not be on a ventilator like so many patients around me.

My lungs had collapsed and I required a constant flow of oxygen.

I was regularly on a machine with an invasive full head mask with fast-flowing air.

COVID also stripped me of my dignity, unable to go to the bathroom or wash myself.

I had to rely on the amazing kindness of the ICU nurses who cared for me at their own risk.

I'm so grateful to all of them, especially those who'd gone from 9-to-5 jobs to retrain for the ICU ward's punishing 12-hour day and night shifts.

I thank them for their altruism and the sacrifice on their personal and family lives.

After ICU, I then spent nearly a week isolated in a hospital room as my blood oxygen was still very low.

Again, looked after by amazing staff head to toe in uncomfortable PPE for very long shifts.

Every day, I desperately hoped my health would improve so I could go home to see my beautiful boys.

My husband was solely looking after them in isolation which took a toll on all of them.

We were lucky enough to have a great community that would drop off food at the front door.

When I got home, I was still unwell and had to isolate which was hard, but I was home, recovery was slow.

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A couple of months after leaving hospital, unexpectedly, my hair started falling out and I lost about three-quarters of it over a six-week period.

This temporary hair loss was due to the trauma my body had gone through getting COVID-19.

Now, prior to COVID-19, I had no underlying health conditions and was a reasonably healthy woman – 14 months later and I feel that I have aged 10 years.

I am still feeling the long-term effects of COVID-19.

My fitness has been severely impacted. I have brain fog at times and fatigue, taking a lot more effort to do the same daily activities.

I feel a lesser version of myself due to this horrible, debilitating disease which makes me sad for my boys.

My message to you: we are so lucky in this country to have access to vaccines and great healthcare.

If I got the Delta variant before vaccines were introduced, I truly do not know if I would be standing here today talking to you.

Do not play Russian roulette with your health or with those you love.

Please, get vaccinated.

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Dominic Perrottet has won the race to become the next Premier of New South Wales, so what does this mean for the state?

The 39-year-old is the first leader from the conservative wing of the NSW Liberal Party since the Coalition took power in 2011, with predecessors Gladys Berejiklian, Mike Baird and Barry O'Farrell all emerging from the traditionally dominant moderate faction.

Mr Perrottet entered the NSW Parliament in 2011 and now, 10 years later, has completed his rise to the top – the youngest ever to hold the state's reins.

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Who is Dominic Perrottet?

The new Premier, a University of Sydney graduate, was elected MP for the north-western Sydney seat Castle Hill during the Coalition's record-smashing 2011 electoral victory.

But the Sydney-raised father of six was active in politics for some years before, serving on the Liberal Party's NSW State Executive before his election.

Following redrawn electorate boundaries, Mr Perrottet traded seats and was elected MP for Hawkesbury, on Sydney's outskirts.

In 2017 he was appointed as NSW Treasurer and elected as the Liberal deputy leader, beneath Ms Berejiklian, following the resignation of then-premier Mike Baird.

In 2019, Mr Perrottet switched seats yet again and was elected as the MP for Epping.

What does the new premier mean for the COVID-19 pandemic?

Despite assurances from all angles of government that the resignation of Coalition leaders Ms Berejiklian and John Barilaro will not interrupt the "continuity" of the state's COVID-19 response, there is already word changes could be afoot.

9News reporter Chris O'Keefe said health officials would find Mr Perrottet to be a less "cautious" leader than Ms Berejiklian.

"The information I have is he will seriously consider bringing forward freedom day to NSW to this Friday," he said. 

READ MORE: Barilaro announces resignation, rules out federal tilt

"Pubs will open, you will be allowed to have people around to your home this Friday. He will sit down with the health official sometime this week to formalise that, but it could be the first order of business."

O'Keefe said Mr Perrottet had been in the background, "pushing to open" the state for some time.

Political views

Mr Perrottet is a staunch conservative and a committed Catholic, who in his maiden speech to Parliament applauded the role that "faith" had played in Australian society.

"I believe that true social justice is one that is built on the foundation that respects the dignity of every human being without distinction of race, gender or colour, whether they are born or unborn, infant or frail aged, whether they are sick or healthy," he said.

In the same speech, he took a stand against "social engineering" and said the Liberal Party was at its best when it embraced both traditionalism and libertarianism.

However, in July this year, he called for the Federal Government to bring back JobKeeper to help struggling workers and businesses in New South Wales.

Mr Perrottet voted against decriminalising abortion in NSW in 2019, and has also spoken out against same-sex marriage.

In 2016, on his official Facebook page, he praised the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, claiming it was a victory for "people who have been taken for granted by elites".

His election to the premier's chair has been supported by former Prime Minister John Howard.

China flew 56 fighter planes toward Taiwan on Monday in the largest show of force on record, continuing the three days of sustained military harassment against the self-ruled island.

The first sortie of 52 planes included 34 J-16 fighter jets and 12 H-6 bombers, among other aircraft, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence.

Later, four more Chinese J-16s flew toward the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defence identification zone — a buffer outside a country’s airspace.

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The Taiwanese air force scrambled its fighter planes and monitored the movement of the Chinese warplanes on its air defence system, the ministry said.

China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

It refuses to recognise the island’s government and has increasingly sought to isolate the independence-leaning administration of President Tsai Ing-wen.

Experts have called the flights and other military manoeuvres by Beijing grey zone warfare, or any type of military action short of direct combat.

Many say they do not believe the display of force and aggressive rhetoric, much of which is repetitive, will lead to war.

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Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949, and Beijing opposes Taiwan’s involvement in international organisations.

Taiwan announced on September 23 that it had applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a week after China submitted its own application to join the trade pact.

Starting last Friday, on China's National Day, the People's Liberation Army sent 38 warplanes into the area and 39 aircraft on Saturday, previously the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing reports on the flights in September 2020.

China sent an additional 16 planes on Sunday.

The latest manoeuvres by the Chinese air force bring the total to 814 flights.

“We remain concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilising, risks miscalculations and undermines regional peace and stability," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said yesterday.

"We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan."

In response to a similar statement over the weekend from the US State Department, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said that the US selling weapons to Taiwan as well as ships navigating the Taiwan Strait were “provocative action that harmed US-China relations.”

“China will take all necessary countermeasures and resolutely crush any ‘Taiwan independence’ plot,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement last night.

The latest flights have come in separate groups with daytime and nighttime incursions.

The nighttime flights are of note, analysts say, because they're more challenging due to reduced visibility.

“They have the kind of confidence to operate at night,” Chen-Yi Tu, a researcher at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, said.

With Associated Press

A prospective Russian hypersonic missile has been successfully test-fired from a nuclear submarine for the first time, the military said today.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that the Severodvinsk submarine performed two launches of the Zircon cruise missile at mock targets in the Barents Sea.

It first test-fired Zircon from the surface, and then launched another missile from a submerged position in the White Sea.

The launch marked Zircon's first launch from a submarine.

It previously has been repeatedly test-fired from a navy frigate, most recently in July.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zircon would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 1000 kilometres.

Mr Putin has emphasised that its deployment will significantly boost Russian military capability.

Officials said Zircon's tests are to be completed later this year and it will be commissioned by the Russian Navy in 2022.

Zircon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines.

It is one of several hypersonic missiles under development in Russia.

The Kremlin has made modernising the country’s arsenals a top priority amid the tensions with the West that followed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Indonesia plans to reopen the airport in the resort island of Bali for international flights on October 14, after closing it for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on Monday the airport will open to international flights as long as it fulfils requirements for quarantine and testing.

International arrivals must show proof of hotel bookings for a mandatory eight-day quarantine.

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“We are open to several countries, including South Korea, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand,” Mr Pandjaitan said.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, has recorded more than 4.2 million COVID-19 cases with 142,261 deaths, but infections have decreased in the last few weeks after peaking in mid-July.

Tourism and Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said Bali's reopening will focus on travellers and returning expatriates who used to live in Bali.

The government is still finalising some steps including lists of countries with direct flights to Bali.

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“The most important priority is the safety of the Indonesian people in terms of health and being protected from the potential spike in new cases of COVID-19," Mr Uno said.

Last Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced international borders would reopen next month for states with 80 per cent vaccination rates.

International travellers will need to quarantine for seven days when they return to Australia.

Qantas is now accepting bookings on services to London, Vancouver and Singapore from December 18.

Flights to destinations with lower vaccination rates – including Bali, Jakarta, Manila and Johannesburg – are expected to restart in March or April next year, Qantas said.

READ MORE: What you need to know about international travel resuming in Australia

When Tanitoluwa "Tani" Adewumi mulls his next move on a chessboard, his instinct is to pile pressure on his opponent.

"I'm aggressive, I like to attack," he tells CNN Sport of his playing style.

"It's just the way I think in general: I want to checkmate my opponent as fast as I can."

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Tani, who turned 11 in September, is taking the same approach with his chess career.

Having become a national master earlier this year — the 28th youngest person to achieve that title — he now wants to become the game's youngest ever grandmaster.

That record currently belongs to 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra, but Tani is putting in the hours to try to get there faster.

READ MORE: Australian chess champ made grown men cry at age 10

He attends school in New York, then practices for seven hours when he gets home; when he doesn't have school, he can practice for eight, nine, or sometimes even 10 hours a day.

His success in chess has so far yielded a growing collection of trophies, the most treasured of which is the title he won at the New York State chess championship in 2019 — not necessarily because of the way he played, but because it changed his family's life forever.

"That's the one that really boosted us up to become where we are today, and also me and my chess," says Tani.

In June 2017, nearly two years before he won the state championship title, Tani and his family fled northern Nigeria, worried about attacks by extremist group Boko Haram.

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They lived in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after moving to the United States, and shortly afterward Tani joined the chess club at his school, PS 116 in New York, on the agreement that the registration fee could be waived.

When word spread of Tani's state championship title, an outpouring of financial support for his family followed.

"One family, they paid for a year's rent in Manhattan, one family gave us in 2019 a brand-new Honda, and the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri invited the family and the coaches to come and pay a visit," Tani's father, Kayode Adewumi, who works as a real estate agent, tells CNN Sport.

"A lot of people really helped us, a lot of people gave us financial (support) and money … they donated money for us to get out from the shelter."

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The family set up a GoFundMe page, which provided the housing, legal and educational funds needed to find their feet in the US.

Further donations are being channelled into the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation, which supports underprivileged children around the world.

"We need to give back to the needy, because we know what it takes —we've tasted everything," adds Mr Adewumi.

"When we were in the shelter, some people are still there. We need to help the needy, especially the chess community and the people that need help.

That's why we put the money into the foundation, to help people."

The family feels indebted to the sport of chess — so much so that, through the foundation, they have contributed money to a chess organisation in Africa encouraging more people to take up the game.

Tani's story bears similarities to Netflix series The Queen's Gambit — a fictional story about an orphaned Kentucky girl in the 1960s who becomes a chess champion in her teens.

He has watched the series and says he "definitely did" see himself in it.

"Chess is everything to me, it's my life," says Tani.

"That's how we came to where we are today."

But his early competitive experiences weren't easy; when he played his first chess tournament, Tani lost all of his games.

"It did take me time, of course," he says.

"I believe it takes everybody time."

Today, much of Tani's training involves watching the world's best players — the likes of reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

He studies how they think and how they plot each move.

According to Mr Carlsen, there are few secrets to how he became the world's best player.

"It's been about putting in the time," he tells CNN Sport.

"For me, I don't think I could have ever gotten far in chess without a great love of the game, that's what's been driving it for me all of these years.

"What I do remember from my childhood is that I would go to school; after school I would play soccer with my friends, and when I got home, I would sit down at my own little board where had my chessboard and chess books.

"I would usually eat there. If I didn't have to, I preferred not to eat with my family because then I could not study chess … it must have been a lot of hours, but it was always because I loved it."

To follow in Mr Carlsen's footsteps and reach the status of grandmaster — the highest title in chess — Tani will have to achieve three grandmaster norms — an award given for a high level of performance in a chess — as well as earning an FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) rating of 2500.

Wherever his chess career takes him, Tani can be sure that his family's support will never be far away.

His mother accompanies him to his tournaments, and more recently, his father has been able to attend when he can fit it in around his work schedule

As he watches his son emerge from his games, Mr Adewumi waits for a signal: thumbs up for a win, a horizontal thumb for a draw, and thumbs down for defeat. But whatever the result, his father's reaction is always the same.

"When I'm watching him playing, it's just like your chest wants to burst out until it can be free," says Mr Adewumi.

"When he comes out … we just grab him and are celebrating with him … when he's lost the game, I embrace him, I encourage him.

"He has a philosophy that when you lose, you try again to work out what made you lose and encourage yourself to get better."

That philosophy has reaped rewards so far, and it might yet help Tani Adewumi achieve the status of chess grandmaster.