HEALTH officials in Ireland, where a more infectious variant of the coronavirus first discovered in England has been surging, said they believe three cases of another new variant found in South Africa had been contained. Ireland is grappling with a COVID-19 surge that has exceeded last year's first wave. It confirmed the first cases of the more infectious variant found in South Africa on Friday in people who had travelled to Ireland from South Africa over the Christmas holidays. Ireland this week reported an increasing presence of the variant first found in England. It was detected in 25% of positive…