U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has a lot of explaining to do, as some in Washington are saying his removal this fall of mail sorting machines at postal facilities is partly to blame for challenges the U.S. Postal Service faced in getting packages delivered during the Christmas season. The culprit being blamed by USPS officials is COVID-19.

Of course, the men and women of the Postal Service were impacted by the epidemic. Many Christmas gifts that in past years would have been delivered in person had to be entrusted to the mail instead. And many gift purchases that previously would have been made in person at local stores were handled online.

Give credit to U.S.P.S. personnel, especially here in the Upper peninsula, for doing as well as they did, which was quite well, all things considered. Now, they can add to the famous slogan: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor killer pandemic …

It is likely there is plenty of blame to go around for the instances of slow delivery and even missing packages that have plagued the busiest shipping season of the year.

U.S.P.S. spokesperson Naddia Dhalai said there have been efforts to address the backlog.

But it all came as too little, too late while far too many people spent Christmas Eve deciding whether to wrap up notes explaining the gifts that SHOULD have been under the tree. And, for those waiting for much more important things ­– medicine, for example — the excuses from the U.S.P.S. are no comfort at all.

DeJoy and company must waste no time correcting the problems that have been festering for months, and were only magnified in December.

And, soon after Joe Biden takes office as president, he and Congress should make resolving the Postal Service’s longstanding problems a priority.