Woolworths in Constantia Village has been closed for deep cleaning after an employee tested positive for the Covid-19, the retail company confirmed on Friday.

The staff member was in isolation and recovering at home, it confirmed in a statement.

"In line with our procedures for these types of incidents, our Constantia Village store is closed for forensic deep cleaning by specialists and all our people who were in direct contact with the employee have been placed in self-quarantine for 14 days.

"This procedure is guided by the approach of Department of Health and National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). Their health is being monitored by our Covid-19 Helpline, which is managed by independent specialist health services professionals."

The helpline would also "make all the necessary arrangements" for testing should anyone else develop symptoms during this period, the company said.

"The deep cleaning procedure ensures that the store is safe for our people and our customers to work and shop. The store will open for trade as soon as possible.

"We have notified the Western Cape Department of Health, who will also follow their own tracing process to identify anybody else who is required to take precautionary measures, and they will contact them directly."

On Thursday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said South Africa had 8 232 confirmed coronavirus cases.

He said the Western Cape contributed just below 50% of the total of infections nationwide and was experiencing outbreaks in, among others, shopping complexes and factories.