The article's author may not be the best example of how the pandemic is helping people pay off debt, but it HAS helped in some cases. My SO just paid off his cc debt at the end of July (and I couldn't be prouder!). He has not traditionally been great with money so this was a big step for him.
He used the $1200 stimulus check and put it toward the debt.
Because restaurants closed, he stopped eating lunch out during the day, and taking his son out to eat all the time.
Summer is usually his busy time and he's been extra busy this summer, so he put all that toward the debt as well.
Extras that we normally split (visits to wineries, dinners out, etc) were no longer happening.
Mostly I think this has given him the awareness of where his money was actually going and that he does indeed have control over it.
He had started paying off the cc debt late last summer, but for a long time I think he had felt that it was just too overwhelming and he'd never get it paid off, so he didn't even try. (He was no longer charging anything too it...just letting the interest charges add up.)