Just sharing our experience.....Our son's passport expires this March, and we needed it renewed. Because he is a minor, we're required to renew in-person with both parents present. In December I tried to get an appointment, but the first available was January 30th at the post office (just an fyi, at least in the Philly area, some processing locations are no longer open due to covid, so very limited appointment availability).
Anyway, here we are a month later and his application is not even "in the system" yet

I was finally able to speak with a live person yesterday at the passport processing office. She said that there is a delay (Uhm, yes, we know!) and that it would take 10-12wks to process, but that timeline does not start until the passport has been RECEIVED for processing and we get an application locator number by email. So, the process started on our end in December, and will most likely not receive it until sometime in May. I guess it's been sitting at the post office for the last month. Current status = Not Found, which is why I called.
Lesson learned -as per Andrea's comment above, Expedited service seems the way go!