Booster jabs alone will not be enough to control rising Omicron cases, a public health expert warned today.
Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashire's director of public health, said "we need to stop pretending we can boost our way out of the pandemic".
It comes as the region is bracing itself for a tsunami of Omicron cases' while the numbers of infections among staff meant the hospital was unable to address 'non-Covid issues'.
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs three hospitals across north Lancashire and southern Cumbria, has declared a Covid critical incident due to unprecedented staff absences.
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The situation has led to operations and appointments being cancelled with staff redeployed to cover essential services.
Dr Karunanithi accused the government of 'turning a wilfully blind eye to signals of distress from the front line' and warned that boosters alone would not be enough to resolve the current situation.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The take up for the booster programme and general vaccination in Lancashire has been very, very good, but this characterises the issue as target being hit, but the point being missed.
"Boosters on its own should not be the front and centre of the strategy.
"We need to stop pretending we can boost our way out of this pandemic, and start seriously thinking about keeping the infection levels low as reasonably as we possibly can by truly engaging with communities and the public, saying it as it is what we are seeing, and supporting businesses and supporting local services to carry on doing their main jobs during this crisis."
Dr Karunanithi said that while rising numbers of infections in older age groups were a cause for concern, staff absences were the 'more immediate trigger' for the critical incident being declared.
"This is all meaning we are not able to concentrate on the non-Covid issues that really need to be addressing immediately as well," he said.
"It's a double challenge. It's not only fighting Covid but all the other pent-up demand and need due to non-Covid issues."
According to one NHS boss, a 'number of trusts across the country have declared internal critical incidents' in recent days, as the health service is mired in rising Covid admissions amid skyrocketing staff absence.
The critical incidents come as the rest of the nation is catching up with pressures seen by London in recent weeks, including the North West, which has had a '108 per cent increase' in the number of Covid-19 admissions in its hospitals.
In Greater Manchester, hospital staff absence due to coronavirus has doubled in the last fortnight alone.
Just over 6,000 - one in 11 - Greater Manchester members of staff were absent, for any reason, on Boxing Day, according to the most recent figures issued by the NHS.
A total of 12,548 days were also lost at the region's hospitals in the week leading up to December 26 because staff were sick or self-isolating due to Covid.
However, the Manchester Evening News understands that there has not been a critical incident declared at a Greater Manchester regional level.
