"I think it's important to have as accurate a picture as you can of what the situation looks like here in the states," said Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, an umbrella group of advocacy organizations.

"Asian Americans, like everyone else in the country, are fearful of the virus and trying their best to stay safe and healthy," said John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice has tracked anti-Asian hate crimes for years, but is now tracking incidents directly related to the coronavirus. .

The group also monitors media reports and people who report incidents on their social media accounts. .

"The idea seems to be that all Asian-Americans are carriers of the virus, or somehow Asian Americans in many cases that have been here for generations were the cause of this virus spread in the U.S.," Yang said.

In one incident reported on StandAgainstHatred,org, a victim reported being approached by someone outside a Brooklyn grocery store who said, "Chinese people f---- everything up.".

Rhetoric from President Donald Trump and other top officials, who have referred to COVID-19 as "The Chinese virus," fuels the racism, Yang said.

In California, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and the Chinese for Affirmative Action launched their website Stop AAPI Hate last week in response to growing news reports about hate crimes and discrimination targeting Asian-Americans. .

Cynthia Choi, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said the website has been flooded with reports of incidents since it launched on March 19.

Disturbingly, Choi said she's noted multiple reports of people saying they've been spat on or coughed on. 

Both say many more incidents are likely going unreported and that the current data is only "scratching the surface." Victims of hate incidents may be reluctant to come forward over fear of continued targeting or a desire to move on from the incident, said Orton, which is why tracking tools can help