Mater Dei hospital has been forced to open up a third COVID-19 intensive care unit, bringing the total number of ITUs to five as healthcare workers grapple with the influx of infected patients needing critical care. It comes after the Association of Anaethetists warned, in a statement backed by 12 medical professional groups, that Malta's intensive care resources could be "completely exhausted within days, if not hours". Times of Malta can confirm the unit started to be used on Tuesday afternoon, with sources saying this had been expected since the number of critical patients continued to spike in recent days. This was one of the direct impacts of the rise in cases in the community.