One lucky Aucklander is $1 million richer after winning Lotto’s First Division on Wednesday night.The winning ticket was sold on MyLotto to a player from Auckland.Powerball was not struck, meaning it has rolled over to Saturday…

Can you get long COVID-19 after an infection with Omicron?

It's too early to know for sure, but many doctors believe it's possible to have long-term effects from the Omicron variant of the virus.

Long COVID is usually diagnosed many weeks after a bout with COVID-19.

Any long-lasting effects typically appear about 90 days after symptoms of the initial infection go away, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organisation said this week.

READ MORE: Warning over 'stringent' call for third jab mandate for tourists

Overall, some estimates suggest more than a third of COVID-19 survivors will develop some symptoms of long COVID.

Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety and other problems.

The lingering illness is more likely if you've been hospitalised with COVID-19, but research shows it can happen even after a mild infection.

Omicron began its race around the world late last year.

The variant generally causes milder illness than the Delta version of the coronavirus, but has still overwhelmed hospitals.

READ MORE: Russia's new COVID-19 record as cases increase tenfold in a month

Van Kerkhove said she hasn't seen any research indicating that the portion of COVID-19 survivors who get long COVID will change with the Omicron variant.

Dr Linda Geng of Stanford University, who co-directs one of the many clinics specialising in long COVID, said that though she can't say for sure, a new wave of patients is likely.

"We have to be very cautious and very careful and prepared," Geng said.

In the meantime, scientists are racing to figure out what's behind the mysterious condition. Some theories? It may be an autoimmune disorder.

READ MORE: WHO: Europe entering 'plausible endgame' to COVID-19 pandemic

Tiny microclots may be causing the disabling symptoms. Or perhaps latent viruses in the body have been reactivated.

Scientists are also looking at whether vaccines could be part of the answer.

A Yale University team is studying the possibility that vaccination might reduce long COVID symptoms.

And two other studies offer early evidence that being vaccinated before getting COVID-19 could help prevent the lingering illness or at least reduce its severity.

Three people have been arrested as hundreds of protesters spent a second day camped outside Parliament calling for an end to vaccine mandates.At least 100 police officers greeted the protesters this morning, many who had camped…

The Prime Minister's office has denied sanctioning a threatening phone call to Grace Tame, which she alleges was made by a senior member of a government-funded organisation last year.

The survivor and advocate dropped the bombshell during her National Press Club appearance, claiming she was warned by an unnamed official not to say anything "damning" about the Prime Minister when the baton for Australian of the Year was handed over.  

"You're an influential person. He'll have a fear…with an election coming soon," she claims the person said.

READ MORE: 'Patterns of deception mimicked in our halls of power': Tame

When asked if she was willing to name the individual or the organisation, Ms Tame refused.

Women's Safety Minister Anne Ruston labelled it a "completely unacceptable" thing for a publicly funded organisation to do and said the allegation would be investigated. 

The Prime Minister's office denied any involvement.

"Those comments were not made on behalf of the PM or PMO or with their knowledge," a statement read.

It was a highly anticipated speech from Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins and neither woman spared the Prime Minister from their fury at what they see is continued inaction.

Minister Ruston defended the Coalition's response, saying "I don't think there's been a Prime Minister or a government that's done more to demonstrate it's absolutely committed to women's safety."

READ MORE: 'I didn't want his sympathy as a father': Higgins demands action

It's one of the greatest frustrations young professionals face: being in a good job, on a good wage, but still not being able to afford their own home.

While they might have the ability to service a mortgage (paying exorbitant rent for years has given them plenty of practice!) the main hurdle is the deposit.

Many simply don't have the lump sum to get a loan, and no matter how hard they try to save, they can't keep up with unprecedented market growth.

Cue OwnHome, a new startup that is like AfterPay but for homes. It has the fitting tagline "move in now, pay later".

READ MORE: Cold front to slam into south-eastern Australia

The glossy ad promises "save for your dream home, while you live in it, meaning you can kiss the renter's life goodbye".

Ultimately it's an alternative to renting and saving.

"For all those people who want to get a leg up on the property ladder and either can't or don't want to rely on the bank of mum and dad," OwnHome co-founder Tim Harley explained.

Zaheer Jappie and his partner Michelle are some of OwnHome's first customers.

They moved into their home with their two young children two months ago, in Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west.

The pair did it without having to save a hefty deposit.

"Having your own space and sense of ownership, it's something we really love," Mr Jappie said.

How does it work?

To buy a $1 million home, you pay an upfront fee of $25,000, which is a fraction of the $200,000 deposit you'd need to avoid lenders mortgage insurance.

OwnHome purchases the property outright on your behalf, covering stamp duty and conveyancing costs, so you can move straight in with a deposit.

You can also pick out your dream home, as long as it falls below the $1.8 million cap.

"We came to the open home, we called OwnHome and said we want to get this house and they made it happen in a few days. Seriously a few days, it was amazing," Mr Jappie said.

You then pay $70,000 a year, or $1350 a week, over a three to seven-year contract.

OwnHome pockets the lions share, $45,000, while the remaining $25,000 accumulates as equity in the property each year.

After five years you'll have contributed $125,000, which potentially can be used as equity to take out a bank mortgage and transfer title.

READ MORE: Sydney plumbers find $44m drug stash while fixing toilet

The price you pay for the home is locked in at the start of the contract, based on the property increasing in value at a rate of 3.8 per cent each year.

So a $1 million home will cost you $1.2 million in five years' time.

OwnHome then deducts the contributions you've made, around $150,000, giving you a mortgage of $1.05 million.

It's a foot in the door with potential for growth.

"You get the capital gains upside above the pre-agreed price, you get to make the home your own, so we have customers putting in carpets, taps, things renters just don't do," Mr Harley said.

In a vote of confidence, the company has earned the backing of Australia's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank.

"We like OwnHome, we think it's an innovative model, so we wanted to make an investment," Commonwealth Bank Chief Executive Matt Comyn said.

The catch is the strategy only works in a rising market.

NAB is forecasting Sydney house prices to fall 11.4 per cent next year due to interest rate rises.

What happens if the market goes backwards?

The purchase price still increases at a rate of 3.8 per cent a year.

At the end of your contract, if you don't have enough equity to buy the property, you risk losing the house and any money you've put into it.

"We know there will be cycles in the property market but in the long run Sydney has historically seen fantastic growth," OwnHome co-founder James Bowe said.

You'll also still need to stump up stamp duty when you take ownership and potentially lenders mortgage insurance.

"You've got to remember OwnHome aren't charity, they're making money through fees, not just at the beginning but all the way through in each payment," Sally Tindall from RateCity said.

READ MORE: How Tasmanian tiger's closest relative could help resurrect species

Rent to buy schemes are banned in South Australia and Victoria, but OwnHome has put in measures including if you miss a payment you have a 70 day grace period to sort out your finances.

If everything goes to plan you can accelerate the path to owning your own home. You can save for the deposit while living in it and also get the benefit of capital gains.

But in a flat or decreasing market, you risk walking away with nothing.

It's a gamble, but one Mr Jabbie and his family are happy to take.

"There have been years of speculation the property market is going to crash but it never has," Mr Jabbie.

He's planning to switch over to a bank mortgage in three years.

In the meantime, the pool out the back of their roomy five-bedroom home is getting a workout.

"The kids love it," Mr Jabbie said.

For now, at least, they're living the Great Australian dream.

Leading organisations have called on the federal government to reinvent the "slip, slop, slap" campaign as the incidence of melanoma rises.

A report estimated without critical action being taken, by 2030 a further 14,000 Australians will die from melanoma, while 205,000 will be diagnosed with the disease.

The burden of melanoma is also predicted to cost the nation $8.7 billion.

READ MORE: Sydney plumbers find $44m drug stash while fixing toilet

The report also found melanoma deaths in Australia exceeded our road toll in 2020 by more than 270.

Professor Georgina Long said more people died in 2021 from melanoma than on our roads.

"We have the highest incidence of melanoma in the world," she said.

"In 2021, 17,000 people were diagnosed with melanoma and 1400 died from melanoma, that's more than our road toll."

Professor Long advised without urgent government action and funding, the burden of melanoma in Australia will reach new highs.

"The burden of melanoma for people and carers will only increase and it will require government action," she said.

READ MORE: Cold front to slam into south-eastern Australia

It comes as today the Melanoma Institute Australia released its report 'State of the Nation – A Report into Melanoma, A National Health Priority' prompting urgent calls for government action.

"We need support from the government to implement these changes, funding support, and we can make a real difference," Professor Long said.

The report featured a five-point plan focusing on prevention and awareness to prevent the 2030 outcome.

The report has called for a national melanoma prevention and awareness program, better sun safety in high schools and sports, and a targeted national melanoma screening program.

Professor Long added many of the suggestions in the report can reduce the incidence of melanoma by up to "45 per cent".

READ MORE: How Tasmanian tiger's closest relative could help resurrect species

Professor Long said better education campaigns are needed within schools about sun safety.

"It has slipped off the radar and we need to put it back on the radar," she said.

It has been a bombshell day in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial, with a former solider considering pulling the pin on evidence and a serving SAS member forced to admit he met with two Nine Newspaper journalists, who the war hero is suing.

New documents also released today have given insight into Roberts-Smith's affair with a woman who has accused him of domestic violence.

The woman, known as Person 17, claimed she was assaulted by the decorated soldier at Hotel Realm in Canberra in 2018.

But the Victoria Cross recipient is adamant his mistress fell down the stairs at an event they attended at Parliament House.

Prior to that night, text messages between the pair reveal their fling was flirtatious.

"Your amazing (sic), you make me feel like I never have before," Roberts-Smith wrote to her.

"I know. As hard I find being away from you – it's the lying and pretending that's doing my head in," she replied.

Then, a month after the event in Canberra, Roberts-Smith's lover confronted his wife at the family home.

"What have you done, this is outright blackmail," Roberts-Smith wrote to Person 17.

"If you love Emma (Robert-Smith's wife) and genuinely want to fix your marriage then it needed to come out… You've been lying to everybody and it's time to stop," she replied.

The Federal Court also heard a stunning confession from a serving SAS member today, who was forced to admit he met with two Nine Newspaper journalist being sued by Roberts-Smith.

He claimed one of those catchups was a complete blur and denied sharing information about the VC winner.

In another dramatic twist, a former soldier is now considering pulling the pin on giving evidence.

The high-stakes trial resumes tomorrow.

A man has drowned after becoming caught in a rip near Wollongong.

Emergency services were called to Shellharbour Beach just after 1pm this afternoon to reports of three men struggling in a rip.

Two men returned to the shore safely without any reported injuries.

READ MORE: Cold front to slam into south-eastern Australia

Emergency services began searching for the third man.

Five paramedic crews and a rescue helicopter were sent to the search site.

9News understands a body was pulled from the water just after 5pm.

Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins had the eyes of a nation on them in 2021 and again during an address to the National Press Club, as they continue to lead a movement demanding justice for women and victims of sexual assault.

An investigation is already underway into claims made by Grace Tame that she received a "threatening" phone call about publicly criticising Scott Morrison.

Today at her National Press Club address alongside Brittany Higgins, Ms Tame said she was contacted by a senior staffer of a government-funded organisation and asked to refrain from saying anything "damning" about Mr Morrison.

Just hours after the former Australian of the Year told this story for the first time, Women's Safety Minister Anne Ruston said a probe has been launched.

LIVE UPDATES: 'It happens to women everywhere': Brittany Higgins speaks out

"I was unaware of the accusations until I heard them today at the Press Club and my understanding is that no one else in government was aware of that until that time," she said.

"I think we need to find out the circumstances around exactly what's happened and transpired here but obviously the consequences need to match up with the action that's been taken."

https://twitter.com/TamePunk/status/1491301827547402245

This afternoon a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said any such call to Ms Tame would be considered "unacceptable" and called for an apology.

"The first the PM or Prime Minister's Office became aware of that allegation was during today's Press Club speeches," a spokesperson for Mr Morrison said.

"The PM has not and would not authorise such actions and at all times has sought to treat Ms Tame with dignity and respect."

READ MORE: 'I didn't want his sympathy as a father': Brittany Higgins demands action

The spokesperson said Ms Tame should be "free to speak her mind and conduct herself as she chooses".

"While Ms Tame has declined to name the individual, the individual should apologise," the spokesperson said.

"Those comments were not made on behalf of the PM or PMO or with their knowledge.

"The PM and the government consider the actions and statements of the individual as unacceptable."

Ms Tame has claimed an investigation into the call "misses the point entirely".

'You are an influential person. He will have a fear'

Ms Tame said she the senior staffer was "asking for my word that I would not say anything damning about the Prime Minister on the evening of the next Australian of the Year awards" on August 17 last year.

"'You are an influential person. He will have a fear,' they said," Ms Tame said in her speech.

"Fear? What kind of fear – I asked myself. A fear for our nation's most vulnerable?

"A fear for the future of our plan? And then I heard the words – 'with an election coming soon'."

Ms Tame went on to say she believed Mr Morrison feared being discredited if she spoke her mind about his handling of issues of harassment and abuse faced by Australian women.

"A fear he might lose his position or, more to the point, his power," she said.

"Sound familiar to anyone? Well, it does to me."

"Repeatedly this year, I have seen the patterns of deception and deceit performed by predators mimicked in our halls of power. And that's just it."

Ms Tame delved into how threats and a culture of fear perpetuated environments where abuse could be perpetrated.

"I remember standing in the shadow of a trusted authority figure, being threatened in just the same veiled way," she said.

"I remember him saying I will lose my job if anyone hears about that – 'and you would not want that, would you? No.'

"What I wanted at that moment is the same thing I want right now – and that is an end to the darkness, an end to sexual violence, safety, equity, respect, a better future for all of us."

While she claimed to have been warned against impacting Mr Morrison's reputation ahead of the 2022 Australian of the Year awards ceremony – on this day the advocate for women provoked a storm of headlines as she stood unsmiling next to the Prime Minister.

Ms Tame was condemned by some for perceived impoliteness, while many others praised her for refusing to compromise her opinions for a photo opportunity.

Mr Morrison said later he had "raised no issues" with the photos, calling Ms Tame "passionate" and thanking her for her work as Australian of the Year.

Ms Tame herself said women were "sick" of being told to smile.

When questioned about the incident she simply replied: "I act with integrity. That's it."

Ms Tame was today joined by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins who called for more leadership from Mr Morrison when she came forward with a rape allegation from inside Parliament House last year.

Tame says she is still subject of threats

Ms Tame was groomed, stalked and sexually abused by a teacher at her high school in Tasmania from 1992 until she reported him in 2011 when she was 16 years old.

She said he had been known to be a predator before she was even born and spoke about other men and women who witnessed his behaviour during his 18-year tenure.

They told her they wished they had not "turned a blind eye".

Despite all this, Ms Tame said she's been subjected to abuse and online vitriol, with some people still blaming her for her own abuse.

"But, sure, I was the predator. It was all my fault," she said.

"If I can still be shamed into believing that today, it is no wonder that even amid this national reckoning, with all the empowerment it has generated for survivors, many still remain hesitant to publicly come forward with their stories."

For years Tasmania's gag laws meant Ms Tame was unable to speak out, while her abuser bragged on Facebook.

She went on to win permission from the Supreme Court to tell her story in 2019.

'The reforms don't go far enough'

Australia's sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, recommended 55 reforms to better protect workers from toxic workplace culture and sexual harassment in her world-first Respect at Work report.

However, the Federal Government only agreed to implement six.

Maurice Blackburn Principal Lawyer Alexandra Grayson told 9news.com.au the most critical exclusion was the "positive duty" clause, which would see workplaces move from a complaints-based system to a preventative one, ensuring greater protections for workers.

"The main area that the government hasn't acted upon is the imposition of a positive duty for an employer to take all reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace," Ms Grayson said.

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"That reform was designed to move from a system where men and women of Australia had to litigate or make a complaint because they'd been sexually harassed or discriminated against, to one where a preventative model was in place."

Ms Grayson said there was not enough focus on the prevention of sexual assault or harassment in Australian workplaces.

Ensuring a "safe culture" should be the responsibility of employers who could improve work environments through risk assessments, modelling good behaviour and enforcing company policies, Ms Grayson said.

"Essentially ensuring people do conduct themselves in an appropriate way," she said.

Ms Grayson has called on the government to consider a more proactive approach to legislate change, claiming the six reforms agreed upon do not go far enough.

"It's been years since this Jenkins report was handed down," she said.

"The government hasn't taken them seriously. I think that's to the detriment to the working women and men of Australia."

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

National Domestic Violence Service: 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).

If you are in immediate danger call Triple Zero (000).