The United Nations said on Friday it was yet to see evidence from the United Arab Emirates government that Dubai's Sheikha Latifa was still alive.

Britain's foreign minister on Wednesday called footage of the daughter of Dubai's ruler saying she is being held captive "distressing" and said the government would "watch closely" the response of the United Nations.

The UAE announced Saturday it is opening a path to citizenship for select foreigners, in a rare move for the Gulf where the status and its welfare benefits are jealously guarded.

After opening itself to New Year's revelers, Dubai is now being blamed by several countries for spreading the coronavirus abroad, even as questions swirl about the city-state's ability to handle reported record spikes in virus cases.

The government's Dubai Media Office says the sheikhdom is doing all it can to handle the pandemic, though it has repeatedly declined to answer questions from The Associated Press about its hospital capacity.

Dubai restaurants have begun offering discounts to customers who have been inoculated against coronavirus, amid a vaccination drive as the emirate seeks to fight the pandemic without closing its doors.

The United Arab Emirates' top diplomat has publicly acknowledged a so-far unexplained ban on visitors from Pakistan, which travel agents say also targets tourists and laborers from a dozen Muslim-majority countries amid the pandemic and the UAE's normalization of ties with Israel.

Following a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed "the temporary nature of recent restrictions imposed on the issuance of visas due to the outbreak of COVID-19," the UAE's state-run WAM news agency reported Sunday.

A flight operated by budget airline flydubai landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday, the first scheduled commercial service between the two cities following the normalisation of ties between the UAE and Israel.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said Tuesday he had received an experimental coronavirus vaccine, becoming the latest United Arab Emirates official to take part in the trials.

It doesn't have the malls of Dubai or the mega-projects of Abu Dhabi, but the conservative Gulf emirate of Sharjah has carved out a role for itself as a cultural capital.

Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor as the sheikhdom tries to claw its way out of an economic depression worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak of the virus exacerbated the already-gathering economic storm engulfing the emirate, which has seen mass layoffs thin the ranks of its foreign workforce and empty homes even amid slight signs of recovery. Even now, experts warn the sheikhdom's crucial real-estate market is on track to hit record lows seen in the 2009 Great Recession.