Cuomo Unveils Coronavirus Mountain, Pushes For Trump Mask Order

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — New Yorkers amid the coronavirus pandemic took 42 days reach the peak of a mountain of disease, despair and death they've yet to fully descend.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said steps must be taken to ensure the "mountain" — the state's coronavirus curve — doesn't turn into a mountain range.

And, if the metaphor wasn't obvious enough, Cuomo had a prop — a scale model of New York's curve sculpted into a literal representation of a mountain.

"Doing this once in life is enough," Cuomo said, pointing up at the coronavirus' summit. "We don't need to climb another mountain."

Cuomo, who is no stranger to using art to drive a point home, unveiled the peak during a news conference largely focused on the coronavirus' decline in New York and troubling resurgence elsewhere in the country.

New York had eight coronavirus deaths on Sunday, helping the state reach the lowest three-day average of lives lost to the virus since the crisis began, Cuomo said. Its 853 hospitalizations were the lowest number since March 18, he said.

But Cuomo expressed concerned that rising numbers in other states could spread the virus back to New York. Florida, for instance, set a single-day record with nearly 9,600 new cases.

"We have offered help to any state that is experiencing a spike," Cuomo said. "We have personnel who know this better than anyone in the United States, we learned it the hard way."

Turning the coronavirus crisis around requires White House help, Cuomo said. He urged President Donald Trump to sign an executive order directing everyone to wear a mask in public.

The famously mask-averse Trump should also lead by example, Cuomo said, before flashing another bit of custom artwork — a photo graphic showing the president wearing a mask.

"Put a mask on it!" the graphic stated.