Coronavirus updates: 84% of California population to go on lockdown Sunday night

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton said he will miss the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain this weekend after testing positive for COVID-19.

After having three negative test results this past week, the 35-year-old British racing driver said he woke up Monday morning with "mild symptoms" and requested another test which came back positive. He said he has immediately gone into self-isolation for 10 days.

"I'm devastated that I won't be racing this weekend," Hamilton said in a statement posted on his official Instagram account Tuesday. "Since we started the season in June, my team and I have been taking all the precautions we possibly can and following the regulations everywhere we've been in order to stay safe."

Hamilton, whose victory at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul on Nov. 15 sealed the Formula One championship and his record-equaling seventh world title, said he considers himself "really lucky" to only have mild symptoms and that he will do his best "to stay fit and healthy."

"Please look after yourselves out there, you can never be too careful," he said. "These are worrying times for everyone and we need to make sure we are looking after ourselves and each other."

People are now required to wear face masks in all indoor public spaces in the Netherlands.

The Dutch government is one of the last in Europe to introduce such a mandate.

The new rule, which came into force Tuesday, applies to everyone over the age of 13 when in publicly accessible, covered places such as airports, barber shops and hair salons, covered car parks and gas stations, public transportation including platforms, town halls and retail stores. Students and teachers will also have to wear masks when walking around school buildings but not when seated during lessons.

Places of worship and buildings not accessible to the general public are exempt.

Those who ignore the mask mandate face a fine of up to 95 euros (about $114).

The former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that although he expects a COVID-19 vaccine to be approved soon, he also anticipates "some bumps in the road."

"When you vaccine millions of people, some people get really sick after the vaccination and you don't know whether that was the vaccine or that was just coincidence. So that has to be studied carefully or you're going to get all sorts of wild rumors flying around," Dr. Tom Frieden, who is now the president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Tuesday on "Good Morning America."

"There may be production problems, there may be rumors, there may be people who don't want to take it even if you do have the vaccine," he added. "So this is probably, George, the single most complicated vaccination program in American history."

Although a vaccine may be right around the corner, Frieden said people must remain vigilant this winter by wearing masks, washing hands, practicing social distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings.

"We have to double down on safety protocols or we're going to see the worst season we've yet had for COVID," he warned. "We can all do more."

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday that it could decide by Dec. 29 whether to recommend granting a conditional marketing authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Meanwhile, the European drug regulator said its assessment of another COVID-19 vaccine developed by American biotechnology company Moderna, which has also applied for a conditional marketing authorization, could be completed by Jan. 12.

In the European Union, conditional marketing authorizations allow for the approval of medicines or vaccines "that fulfill an unmet medical need on the basis of less complete data than normally required," according to the EMA. However, the data must show that the benefits outweigh any risks, and companies must provide further data from ongoing or new studies once a conditional marketing authorization has been granted.

The EMA said its reviews of both vaccine candidates "will proceed under an accelerated timeline" and that decisions could be issued "within weeks, depending on whether the data submitted are sufficiently robust and complete to show the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccine."

"Such a short timeframe is only possible because EMA has already reviewed some data on the vaccine during a rolling review," the agency said in a statement Tuesday. "These timelines are based on the type of data assessed so far in the context of the rolling review and may be subject to change as evaluation proceeds."

If the EMA decides to recommend granting conditional approval, the agency said the European Commission will then fast-track its decision-making process with a view to permitting a conditional marketing authorization that's valid in all EU and European Economic Area member states "within days."