Pandemic-related disruptions caused tens of thousands more malaria deaths in 2020, the World Health Organization said on Monday, though it added that urgent action had averted a far worse scenario.

In a new report, the UN health agency found that Covid-19 had reversed progress against the mosquito-borne disease, which was already plateauing before the pandemic struck.

There were an estimated 241 million malaria cases worldwide in 2020 – 14 million more than a year earlier – and the once-rapidly-falling death toll swelled to 627 000 last year, jumping 69 000 from 2019.

Approximately two-thirds of those additional deaths were linked to disruptions in the provision of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic, the WHO said.

But it stressed that the situation "could have been far worse".

The UN agency pointed to its projection early in the pandemic that the service disruptions could cause malaria deaths to double in 2020.

Since the turn of the century, the world has made steady progress against malaria, with annual cases falling 27 percent by 2017 and deaths plunging by over 50 percent.

The situation worsened in sub-Saharan Africa, where 95 percent of all malaria cases and 96 percent of all deaths occur. Around 80 percent of all deaths are among children under five.

The WHO report showed that 24 countries had registered increased malaria deaths since 2015 – the agency's global malaria strategy baseline year.