The Canadian government announced Monday it will no longer require people to wear masks on planes to guard against COVID, the Associated Press reported. The rules will be lifted October 1. Government officials also confirmed Canada is dropping the vaccine requirement for people entering the country at the end of the month. The news comes at a time when many other countries, including Japan, Hong Kong and the UAE, are lifting restrictions on travel. In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 52,539 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 23% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 15% at 29,443, while the daily average for deaths is up 9% to 417. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 615.6 million on Tuesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.53 million with the U.S. leading the world with 96.1 million cases and 1,056,789 deaths.