DUBAI -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has started an online wedding service for couples wishing to get married despite the coronavirus pandemic, Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reports.

The Justice Ministry, which is responsible for registering marriages in the country, has set up a website for engaged couples to submit documents needed to record their weddings.

The new service also requires the prospective husband and wife to choose a cleric from an officially approved list of marriage registrars.

Once the couple's paperwork has been approved, a date is set for a virtual ceremony via videoconferencing, during which the cleric will ask for the couple's digital signatures before a marriage contract is issued, the report said.

Afterwards, the cleric will email the contract to a religious court to review before copies of the approved contract are sent to the couple's mobile phones.

The digital wedding service aims to protect public health and facilitate access to legal procedures "under the current circumstances by depending on the smart justice system," the official UAE news agency WAM said.

The UAE has so far reported 3,736 cases of the coronavirus and 20 virus-related deaths.

The outbreak has prompted the Gulf country to offer many public services online. -- Agencies