Support for the federal Liberals has increased in nearly every province in Canada since January, though it has fallen by nearly 19 points in Quebec over that span, according to a new Mainstreet Research poll conducted amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The automated phone poll of 1,665 Canadian adults found that 39 per cent of leaning and decided voters said they would vote for the Liberals if a federal election were held today.

When broken down by province, support for Liberals was highest in the Atlantic at 54.2 per cent, followed by Ontario at 51.2 per cent, 33.1 per cent in B.C., 27.5 per cent in the Prairies and 24.8 per cent in Alberta — the latter two both being regions where the Liberals hold no seats. Support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party, though, stood at 26.5 per cent in Quebec.

The Bloc Québécois held first in Quebec, drawing the support of 37.6 per cent of respondents. The Conservatives were in third place in the province with 21.2 per cent of support, while the NDP was far behind in fourth at 8.1 per cent.

The poll was completed between March 16 and 17 — before the Trudeau government announced closure of Canada’s border with the U.S. to all non-essential travel and unveiled a sweeping $82-billion aid package, but after the feds pledged $1 billion to address the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The margin of error for the poll is reported as plus or minus 2.4 percentage points at the 95 per cent confidence level. However, the margins of error are higher for the subsamples.

In comparison, a poll conducted by Mainstreet Research in January found that 45.3 per cent of Quebec’s leaning and decided voters supported the PM’s party. At the time, support for the Liberals was lower in Ontario than it is now, at 47 per cent, as well as B.C., at 28.7 per cent.

The drop in support from Quebec could be blamed on the feds response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as the same poll from Mainstreet found that four-in-ten Quebec respondents viewed the response “very negatively,” the highest of any region.

Comparatively, 34.3 per cent of Ontario respondents said they considered the government’s response “very positively.”

READ MORE: Some 41% of Quebec respondents view feds’ handling of COVID-19 outbreak ‘very negatively’: Mainstreet poll

According to Mainstreet’s recent poll, support for the Liberals was highest in the 65+ age group, at 46.8 per cent, while the Conservatives held 35.2 per cent support in the same demographic.

Health officials have repeatedly wanted that Canadians over the age of 70, as well as those who are immunocompromised, are especially vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

Overall support for the Conservatives from leaning and decided voters stood at 32 per cent, with the NDP trailing at 11 per cent, followed by the Bloc Québécois at nine per cent, the Green Party at six per cent, and the People’s Party of Canada and “another party” both tied at two per cent.