'The Correctional Service of Canada continues to take a number of preventative measures to restrict the spread of COVID-19 in federal institutions,' according to the office of Public Safety Minister Bill Blair.

MPs say COVID-19 case work is consuming their days, and they're turning to ‘imaginative’ ways of reaching out to make sure constituents' needs are met and their voices heard.

'We are dealing with an administration that is both very unpredictable, very much America first, [and] not long-term thinking in terms of its relationship with its allies,' says former diplomat Michael Kergin.

‘We are very worried,’ echoes one psychiatrist whose association is preparing a ‘call to action’ to governments.

'We were able to achieve a win-win outcome, that will be the argument we continue to make and advance in our relationship with the U.S.,' says Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

'We should be weary of using a crisis like this to turn our back on our human rights obligations,' says University of Ottawa law professor Jamie Chai Yun Liew.

'The ability to carry debt, and keep those carrying costs of debt down low, is a game-changer in terms of how we manage the deficit,' says former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page.

The evolution and the ultimate outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic will eventually decide if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's and the premiers' rising approval ratings will last, say pollsters.

So far, the prime minister said some 240,000 people have successfully applied to Canada Emergency Response Benefit.