A Toronto nurse said she was the victim of a coronavirus related racist hate crime as she tried to pick up food at a restaurant. Katherine Cheung said the suspect, a woman in her 60s, attacked her and hurled racial slurs at her before spitting on her, reports CTV News. This attack came in her first week of living in Toronto. She moved from Markham to Toronto to distance herself from an immune-compromised family member.

Cheung said she was near University Avenue and Adelaide Street West with her roommate on Wednesday when the incident occurred. The two decided to get something to eat at a restaurant and was waiting outside for their food. That’s when a woman in her 60s confronted her and started yelling and assaulting her.

“Then she started hitting us with an umbrella,” Cheung said. “She told me to go back to wherever I came from and called me racial slurs. Then she came very close to my face and purposely spit on me.”

Although Cheung was wearing a face mask at the time some of the spit landed in her eyes. Cheung checked herself into the hospital and filed a police report.

The doctor advised Cheung to take a few days off work. But she wants to get back to work as soon as possible.

“It happened because I’m Asian and wearing a mask,” Cheung said. “This person on the street decided to purposely expose me to whatever viruses she possibly had because of my race.”

The incident, however, has left Cheung feeling unsafe but also “disrespected and disregarded.”

Although this isn’t the first time she experienced racism, she has seen an overall increase in hostilities towards her because of the coronavirus.

“Since the start of COVID-19, it has escalated,” Cheung said. “But not to this level.”

There has been a surge of hate crimes committed against Asians outside of Asia since the coronavirus pandemic.