See grok below. I honestly didn’t know this until you asked the question. lol…so thanks!
• Short covering is a buy transaction where the short seller purchases shares on the open market to close their borrowed position; the original short sale (a sell) occurred earlier when the position was opened.
• In market mechanics, every trade pairs one buy and one sell, so short covering generates buy pressure from the coverer matched against a seller, but the short seller themselves performs only the buy at the time of covering.