TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A coalition of doctors called Tuesday for Gov. Ron DeSantis to issue a statewide mandate that people wear masks in enclosed public places, citing rising daily coronavirus case counts as evidence the state's mitigation measures need to be strengthened.

Doctors representing the coalition Physicians for Social Responsibility gathered outside the Governor's Mansion to press DeSantis to take action in the name of saving lives.

"You may not like wearing a mask, but it beats wearing a ventilator," said Dr. Ron Saff. "These are very, just common-sense measures. Common-sense. And we need people to do the common-sense things. They're not doing that, so we feel that a law or an executive order is needed to reverse that."

​The doctors pointed to a study indicating that mask wearing yields a sixfold reduction in a person's susceptibility to contracting the virus. More than a dozen states and 50 countries have implemented public mask mandates.

Florida on Monday reported its largest number of new daily confirmed coronavirus infections since the pandemic began: 2,776.

In the weeks since the governor began easing his lockdown orders, many beaches and restaurants have been packed, even in spite of reduced occupancy limits. Protests in the wake of George Floyd's death have also led to density concerns among public health experts who have urged social distancing and mask usage.

But at a Capitol press conference Tuesday night, the Republican governor said he won't be meeting the doctors' demands.

​"In terms of forcing that under penalty of criminal law, we're not going to be doing that," DeSantis told reporters. "I think it would be applied unevenly, and I just don't think it would end up working, and at the end of the day, we should be trusting people to make good decisions."

Perhaps anticipating the governor's response, Dr. Howard Kessler left Tuesday's Governor's Mansion gathering with a parting thought.

"When our freedoms cause harm to others, we have a problem," he warned.