Pandemic break was a ‘relief’: Chirl

First Lady Chirlaine McCray said on Friday that she basked in the break from official duties during the start of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 24,000 people in the city.

“I think I went from relief from not having to do the regular schedule because you know a lot of what I do, my husband does, we do events. There was for me, I have to admit, a certain amount of relief from that,” McCray said with a laugh at a virtual conference with Mental Health America President Paul Gionfriddo.

Gionfriddo had asked McCray how she, her husband, Mayor de Blasio, and their two adult children had been managing during the crisis that has devastated the city, sickening more than 231,000 Gothamites and putting about one in five people out of work.

Meanwhile, a 14-person, $2 million staff supported McCray, including a $70,000 videographer who captured her baking cookies during the pandemic.

I think I went from relief from not having to do the regular [events] schedule . . . There was for me, I have to admit, a certain amount of relief from that.

— Chirlaine McCray

McCray made the remarks even though she is considering a run for Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position that requires the office holder to attend multiple events daily.

After admitting she enjoyed ducking her public duties, McCray said she turned her attention to helping her husband’s constituents get food, personal protective gear and an education.

“It’s a long list and the work continues,” she said. “Right now we’re trying to open up our schools.”

De Blasio delayed the start of inperson public school classes from Sept. 10 to Sept. 21 after education unions threatened to strike over his lack of planning.

McCray also crowed about her embattled $1.25 billion mentalhealth initiative, ThriveNYC, saying she had helped health-care workers traumatized by all the COVID-19 deaths and set up an emotional-support program for kids returning to school this fall.

“We were hit really hard by the virus, but I think we’re lucky or privileged in that we did have some structures in place,” she said, referring to ThriveNYC.

But de Blasio has threatened to lay off up to 400 EMTs who responded to a record number of 911 calls during the pandemic.

And experts have said ThriveNYC’s social emotional learning program failed to keep city students out of psych wards.

McCray had few public events during the first month of the pandemic, but joined her husband to applaud frontline workers at public hospitals later in the spring.

She was also behind de Blasio’s decision to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s $6 billion budget in response to outrage ignited by George Floyd’s death.

De Blasio appointed her to lead a racial-justice task force in June, which critics saw as a move to boost her political future.