New York, Feb 12 (IANS): Nearly a year since mostly wealthy nations began rolling out coronavirus vaccines, more than half of the world population has been fully vaccinated, but the global rollout remains uneven, with poor countries reporting much lower vaccination rates than rich countries, reported The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Friday.

"Public health experts have been warning that vaccine inequity is helping prolong the pandemic, as the focus of those seeking to speed up global vaccine coverage begins to shift from filling a shortfall of vaccine supply to distributing the doses and persuading people to get them," said the report.

Nearly 54 per cent of the world population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the newspaper quoted 'Our World in Data', an information partnership between the University of Oxford and the Global Change Data Lab charity, as saying, Xinhua news agency reported.

Nearly 62 per cent have received at least one vaccine dose. Yet, less than 11 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose. That number jumps to nearly 55 per cent for lower-middle-income countries and nearly 80 per cent for both upper-middle-income and high-income nations, according to Our World in Data.

"The US, countries of the European Union and others were criticised for buying up most of the early global supply of coronavirus vaccines," added the report.