Updated at 2.20pm

A woman needing urgent medical attention was evacuated from a humanitarian vessel stranded off Malta, the government said on Tuesday.

In a brief statement, the government said the medical evacuation was conducted by the Armed Forces of Malta.

The woman, who is understood to have been travelling alone, was extremely weak and complained of dizziness, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Maltese authorities reacted "promptly and professionally," to the evacuation request, NGO Sea-Eye said in a statement. 

The Alan Kurdi, with 81 people aboard, 64 of whom were rescued off war-torn Libya, is currently in international waters outside Malta but has asked the country for permission to seek shelter from inclement weather. It has not received a reply to that request. 

Meanwhile, the Maltese government has agreed to supply the ship with food and water on Wednesday, following an urgent appeal by crew members who say supplies are running perilously low.

Read: 'Please help us,' NGO asks Malta after Salvini 'humiliates' migrants

"We need supplies by Wednesday at the very latest," a Sea-Eye spokeswoman had said earlier on Tuesday afternoon. "Supplies are about to run out". 

The Alan Kurdi headed towards Malta on Saturday after it was refused entry to Lampedusa. 

Both Italy and Malta have refused it a safe harbour, leaving the migrants sleeping in cramped conditions on the ship's deck, exposed to the elements. 

"They freeze, they get wet again and again and of course no one has [other] clothes with them," said operations manager Jan Ribbeck. 

The European Commission has urged EU member states to find a solution to the impasse so that the migrants may disembark safely.

Meanwhile, people aboard the ship remain none the wiser and the Sea-Eye board has said it is "growing angry" about the blockade. 

"It cannot be that people here and then collapse and have to be picked up individually," Mr Ribbeck said.