HA not starting due to error with docker: "error while dialing dial unix /var/run/containerd/containerd.sock connect connection refused"

I am running HA on a linux virtualbox on Windows machine.

After a power outage, my HA which has been running smoothly since months is stuck on this error:
error while dialing dial unix /var/run/containerd/containerd.sock connect connection refused

Later when I restarted my VM again and again to see if that fixes it, my VM goes straight into some “slot A rescue shell”.

On the rescue shell when I try to systemctl start docker it errors out again with the same error:
error while dialing dial unix /var/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Any idea how can I fix it please?

Attaching images here: HA is stuck on a docker error - Album on Imgur