Transmission through the eye has been established fact for other respiratory viruses:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17050596"Viral infection of the lungs through the eye."
"These results establish the eye as a major gateway of respiratory infection and a respiratory virus as a bona fide eye pathogen"
So its not surprising that goggles are recommended as PPE when dealing with viruses like SARS/MERS/2019nCoV