MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor on Sunday spoke by phone to discuss Russian aid in the fight against Covid-19, the Russian ministry said in a statement.

The ministers spoke as a Russian plane was en route to South Africa carrying doctors and a medical lab to study the Omicron variant, under an agreement between the presidents of the two countries.

"The issues that were discussed concerned the shipment to South Africa of Russian cargoes intended to reinforce the positions of South African colleagues in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus," the ministry said. The ministers discussed the specific details of the plane’s arrival, and the South African side said they will do their best for the aid to arrive as soon as possible, according to the statement.

The plane took off from Russia on December 11. It made a stopover in a Central African country on Sunday, flight controllers told TASS.

The World Health Organization on November 26 assigned the Greek letter Omicron to coronavirus variant В.1.1.529 that was discovered in southern Africa. The WHO stated the variant has a large number of mutations, some of which cause concern. South Africa has the most Omicron cases, while the strain has been detected in a total of 57 countries.