New modelling data revealed by British Columbia (B.C.), Canada has indicated that most COVID-19 cases in the province are linked to strains traced to Europe, Eastern Canada and the U.S., reported CBC News on June 4.

Sequencing data from 700 to 800 virus samples showed that China was not the immediate source of the vast majority of infections chains that arrived in B.C., said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Early cases in January and February linked to travel from China and Iran were "well contained, leading to relatively few other infections," while infection with strains traced to the Europe, Washington state of the U.S. and Eastern Canada "spiked dramatically" in March after a dental conference in Vancouver, said CBC News.

"The viruses that we were seeing that came out of that conference reflected their European origins, and they were more closely related to virus sequencing that we were seeing in Germany, Italy and France," said Henry.

Strains traced to Washington state were also discovered to be linked to high numbers of cases, "particularly in long-term care homes in the Vancouver Coastal Health region."

The data also revealed that Richmond, the city which has the highest concentration of Chinese residents in the province, has the lowest percentage of COVID-19 cases in the Lower Mainland.

According to Statistics Canada, the national statistical office, 54.4 percent of the residents in Richmond have a Chinese ethnic origin, but the city has the lowest percentage of confirmed COVID-19 cases in B.C. with 444 cases per million people, and there have been no new cases in the city since May 18, said the CBC News' report.

Another report on June 8 by the media attributed the containment result to the efforts made by the Chinese community, saying "Early efforts by Chinese community to curb COVID-19 should be applauded."

Dr. Peter Phillips, infectious diseases specialist of University of British Columbia said that the "evidence is pretty clear" that the Chinese community "showed great leadership." Many members of the community adopted measures such as self-isolation and face masks before they were mandated.

However, Ian Young, columnist of South China Morning Post, wrote in an article on Tuesday that the Chinese-majority Richmond was "once feared as potential ground zero for the outbreak," leading to anti-Asian and anti-Chinese racism with the spread of COVID-19.

Hate crimes targeting Asians have increased eightfold in Vancouver over the same period last year, according to the police number.

Dentist Patrick Wu who resides in Richmond, told CBC News that he and his family as well as many other Chinese residents in the city started wearing masks as early as February, but they was met with strange looks and negative reactions. 

Canadian health officials didn't issue recommendations for wearing masks in public until May.

"At the very least, the data now proves the woeful wrongness of those infected by the anti-Chinese virus," Young wrote.

He added that it would be unreasonable to blame health authorities for anti-Asian violence meted out during the pandemic, but "would it have helped mitigate the spread of anti-Chinese sneers and hatred in B.C. if Richmond's infection statistics, and perhaps the genomic sequencing, had been released earlier?"