Many are already saying that COVID-19 is “God’s punishment” for humanity’s sinfulness. Can Creator take this opportunity to address this accusation?

This is a most unfortunate and gross distortion of the nature of the divine. God never punishes anyone. People punish themselves and those around them through their own choices to be ignorant, to be selfish, to be thoughtless and neglectful, and the consequences of those human choices are what will govern the future of the self and those influenced by the self. Humans are in a contest for survival with interlopers bringing evil to the Earth. You cannot take them on directly. You do not have the wherewithal. You must get the help of the divine to deal with the dilemma. You can hide for a time, but eventually the toll will mount and even if it does not result in total human annihilation, it will be a sad and desperate world that worsens all along the way. If you reach out to the divine in earnest with a sincere desire from the heart to have this scourge removed, the divine will act. That is not the question. The question truly here is: "Will you act? Will you launch prayers? Will you launch prayers that can be effective because they incorporate the highest and best intentions with specificity about what is most needed and will be the greatest benefit?" This many see as a kind of punishment as well. We see it being as much an opportunity as a liability because it is through tackling adversity, learning its destructiveness, and ways to counter it that will springboard humanity into a higher plane of existence where the knowledge and experience gained from facing the challenges currently, will end in triumph. That is no punishment, but rather a divine blessing of the greatest magnitude.