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OTTAWA — The global COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China, but data from Canada’s largest provinces show it was American travellers, not Chinese, who brought the deadly virus to our shores.

Despite this evidence, the federal government brought in travel restrictions on China first and American border restrictions were the last to be put in place.

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The National Post asked for data on the origins of travel-related cases in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, the four provinces that have seen the majority of Canada’s COVID-19 cases.

Canada moved later than many other countries to restrict international travel from China. It began with screening measures at airports that were slow to roll out and relied on passengers to disclose if they had symptoms of the virus. Air Canada suspended flights from China in February and the government encouraged people not to travel to China as early as January, but did not ban travellers until March 18 when it imposed sweeping global restrictions.