Any way to make apt ignore dpkg status file?

[Tim Woodall <debianuser@woodall.me.uk>]

Hi

$ APT_CONFIG=../apt/apt.conf.buster.amd64 apt-cache policy dpkg
dpkg:
  Installed: 1.20.10
  Candidate: 1.20.10
  Version table:
 *** 1.20.10 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.19.8 500
        500 http://aptmirror17.home.woodall.me.uk/local buster/essential amd64 Packages

Is there any way to make this not see the installed version other than
by using -o RootDir?

Tim.