Residents of the Chinese city of Wuhan are finding creative ways to combat the boredom of life under quarantine as the country seeks to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak.

The city of 11 million, where a new strain of coronavirus is believed to have originated, is one of almost 20 Chinese cities to have been locked down in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus during the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, traditionally China's busiest travel season.

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Videos on Chinese social media give tips on how to cope indoors, which include breaking out in impromptu lion dances and fishing indoors.

One couple turned their dining table into a makeshift table tennis table to play ping-pong.

"The situation is not that bad," said Robert White, a Wuhan resident. "As long as you have food, you have water and we have electricity, it's not that bad.

"The biggest thing is getting homesick. Staying inside for a long period of time and not being able to go out, that's the difficult part," he said.

To lift the mood, residents chant and cheer words of encouragement from their balconies.

"Keep going!" they chant in the normally busy streets of Wuhan that now resemble a ghost town.

China and countries around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of the latest coronavirus that has killed at least 106 people and infected more than 4,500.

Germany reported its first case of the virus, as the United States and Canada upgraded travel warnings to advise their citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to China.