"the benefits afforded to qualified individuals who received IRA Distributions such as the elimination of the 10% early withdrawal penalty do not apply to similar distributions in 2021.

Is this correct?"

Yes and no.

The provision for special treatment for Disaster distributions was not new for covid. It's the reason the Form 8915- family is up to F, now. And the differing provisions would be tax-year dependent, as well as disaster-dependent.

You cannot use a broad brush stroke for this topic. For example, "covid" distributions ended on Dec 30, 2020. There are no "similar" distributions from Dec 31, 2020 and beyond.

You have to look up the rules that apply for the specific scenario. Right now, there are a surprising amount of topics where someone took their distribution from a 401(k) in 2021, and they seem to think the 10% doesn't apply, when really, all that happened is they submitted to their plan administrator for an allowable distribution, which does not also make it exempt from early withdrawal penalty.