China plans to charter five temporary flights this week to bring back about 900 Chinese citizens in countries hit hard by the novel coronavirus, the country's civil aviation regulator said at a daily briefing on Monday.

Han Guangzu, deputy chief of the flight standard department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said the flights will go to the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain to bring back Chinese citizens, most of whom are students.

Last week, the aviation authority sent four temporary flights, bringing 854 Chinese back from the U.S., the UK and Italy, including 711 students, according to Han.

Though rolling out orders slashing international flights to curb the surging number of imported cases since March 29, the administration activated major air transportation guarantee mechanisms to arrange extra flights and organize chartered flights to bring Chinese studying or living abroad back home, he added.