Chinese students flock home as coronavirus shuts Western campuses

FILE PHOTO: An overseas Chinese student wearing a face mask uses a laptop at a room inside a hotel being used for centralized quarantine following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China March 17, 2020. cnsphoto via REUTERS

SHENZHEN, China/BEIJING (Reuters) - Packed onto a plane full of fellow Chinese students heading home from the United States, 20-year-old Harvard University undergraduate Roger Zhang wore goggles to ward off the coronavirus for hours until they became just too uncomfortable.

Zhang is among tens of thousands of overseas Chinese students making the journey back to China, where the coronavirus emerged late last year, as fears of it grip Western countries and schools and campuses shut their gates.