The British head of government, Boris Johnson, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met on Friday to find solutions to resume air links, interrupted between the two countries due to the new variant of the coronavirus new variant B.1.1.529, called Omicron.

According to a statement from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office, the two leaders discussed the challenges presented globally by the new variant of covid-19 as well as ways to work together to address them.

"Johnson and Ramaphosa agreed to maintain close contact to address the current global pandemic threat," the statement read, with the British prime minister underlining and praising the rapid detection of the genome of the new variant identified in South Africa, as well as that country's "transparency" in sharing scientific data on the pandemic.

This Thursday, the UK added South Africa and five other African countries to the covid-19 'red list', temporarily banning flights, due to the risk associated with the new variant detected in South Africa, Omicron. This measure takes effect this Sunday.