(CNN) -- With holidays approaching, health experts said some festivities can start to return to a sense of normalcy -- but they also warned that COVID-19 isn't defeated yet.
According to a report by CNN, experts said Sunday that outdoor trick-or-treating -- particularly for children who are vaccinated -- should be fine this year.
"It's a good time to reflect on why it's important to get vaccinated," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday.
Dr. Megan Ranney, associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, cautioned against indoor Halloween parties for children too young to be vaccinated and encouraged parents in areas with high virus transmission to mask their children, but agreed that Halloween fun could go on this year.
The big picture for COVID-19 in the U.S. is looking a little brighter as new infections and hospitalizations decline. The average rate of daily new cases has dropped below 100,000, to 93,814 as of Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci said he would like to see new daily cases well below 10,000, but the decline is a start.
"Hopefully it's going to continue to go in that trajectory downward," he said.
While conditions are improving and the sense of normalcy is expanding, Fauci warned that the fight against the pandemic is not over.
"We have to just be careful that we don't prematurely declare victory in many respects," Fauci said. "We still have around 68 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated that have not yet gotten vaccinated."
About 56.4% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although experts don't know the exact percentage of vaccination coverage needed to control the spread of the virus, Fauci has said the "vast majority" of the population will need to get vaccinated.
"We're not there yet," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said. "This virus an continue in those places where vaccination rates are low."
The potential for spread is especially concerning as winter holidays -- often accompanied by gatherings and travel -- approach.
Health experts have promoted vaccination requirements for air travel this holiday season; and while Fauci declined to offer his stance on the matter Sunday, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University Dr. Esther Choo weighed in.
"Now is the time for mandates for airlines," Choo said. "It should happen quickly because people are making plans right now for our fall and winter holidays."
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