Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York on Monday called on Donald Trump to “put a mask on it” and sign an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings in public. Cuomo told the president, who has consistently refused to wear a mask in public, to “lead by example” and wear one himself to stop the surge in new coronavirus cases. “We did it two months ago in this state,” said Cuomo, adding that other states that initially resisted mask mandates were now requiring them, despite some backlash. “Let the president have the same sense to do that as an executive order and then let the president lead by example and let the president put a mask on it, because we know it works.” Cuomo said that most people in the state – probably 95%, he said – had been wearing masks, but the state had to worry about the other 5%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings where social distancing is difficult. Trump has said at times that mask-wearing was fine, but not for him. At other times he has, variously, told aides that wearing one would “send the wrong message”, declared that he wouldn’t wear a mask in public because he “didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it” and sarcastically said to a reporter who declined to remove his mask during a White House press conference: “Oh, OK, you want to be politically correct.” All this is in direct contradiction of the Trump administration’s federal public health experts, on this and other key issues relating to the pandemic. At the governor’s briefing on Monday, Cuomo also said officials were reconsidering a plan to allow indoor dining at New York City restaurants – in order to avoid undoing the state’s progress in reducing coronavirus infections, as cases surge in some states that rushed to reopen such businesses. “Outdoor dining has worked very well,” Cuomo said, but indoor dining had been shown to be “problematic” in other states. He said state officials will consult with restaurant owners and make a decision on Wednesday. Indoor dining is allowed in other parts of the state that are further along with reopening. New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, has said the city was on track to allow indoor dining with limited capacity beginning on 6 July as part of the next phase of reopening. Cuomo said there were seven Covid-19 deaths on Sunday and 853 people hospitalized, the lowest since the pandemic hit the state. He called on local officials to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing rules, noting a lack of compliance seen on street corners and outside bars around New York City. Meanwhile Governor Phil Murphy said that New Jersey will not allow restaurants to accept customers for indoor dining, citing “knucklehead behavior” from people not practicing social distancing as the reason. New Jersey began its reopening phase 2 on 15 June, allowing bars and restaurants to offer outdoor dining. Murphy unveiled over the weekend a plan to allow indoor dining at limited capacity as the next step, but on Monday said he will not go forward with the plan. “We have seen spikes in other states driven, in part, by the return of patrons to indoor dining establishments, where they are seated, and without face coverings, for significant periods of time,” he said. “We are also moved to take this step because of what we have seen in some establishments across the state of late.” Local reporters said that crowds outside bars and restaurants, especially along the shores of the state, were huge, with few people wearing masks. And Jacksonville, Florida, the city that is now slated to host the Republican national convention in August, announced that it will adopt a mandatory mask requirement for all indoor locations where social distancing is not possible. The Republican National Committee actually moved its 2020 convention, where Donald Trump will formally accept the party’s nomination to fight the election, to Jacksonville after the state it was supposed to be held in, North Carolina, said it would probably impose restrictions to shrink the size of the convention and limit risks in the pandemic. Florida has seen new Covid-19 cases soar, surpassing 9,000 in one day over the weekend. State and local leaders have had to roll back reopening measures because of the surge in new cases. On Monday afternoon Kansas governor Laura Kelly said that she will sign an executive order requiring that most state residents must wear a mask in public, including outdoors, starting Friday. And Oregon governor Kate Brown said people in her state will be required to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces starting Wednesday.