XinhuaWang Ying via Getty Images New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio offered reflections on what he learned about himself in 2020 when asked by reporters at a Wednesday press conference. "I learned the value of sleep," the mayor said. Local tabloids have chronicled his pre-COVID jaunts to the Park Slope YMCA in Brooklyn and his midday strolls during the pandemic. The Big Apple has suffered more than 24,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far, with an average of more than 700 deaths per day at the peak in early April.