You don't have to sign those tickets,but if you don't you are usually held in jail. I can only guess that this policy maybe changed during covid conditions, so the police signing (covid 19) as the signature is maybe an indication of no signature but also why they weren't taken to jail? Who knows though.

The covid pandamic caused lots of places to operate differently and some of those changes were actually improvements so they've stuck. Jurisdictions where people were asked to sign tickets suspended the practice during covid restrictions and I'm sure it's a hell of a lot easier that way.