My parents, aged 80, were recently invited to be vaccinated, and went to the community centre to make an appointment.

They mentioned to the staff that they might be allergic to penicillin and sulphur, although they were not sure.

They were informed that they needed to see a doctor to get a memo to allow them to be vaccinated. This is strange, and I wonder why such information was not immediately available.

I called the Ministry of Health's Covid-19 hotline. The person I spoke to said she was not medically trained and could not provide information on whether penicillin and sulphur allergies would disqualify a person from being vaccinated.

I have G6PD deficiency, which affects the functioning of red blood cells, and was also not able to find out whether I can be vaccinated.

Should the hotline have a doctor on standby to provide such information to the public?

Does the Health Ministry expect the elderly to go to any doctor to get a memo allowing them to be vaccinated?

Why would neighbourhood doctors give such a memo? And are they supposed to know more about the types of allergies that will affect the vaccination?

Surely by now, after so many vaccinations, the ministry should have clear information on which allergies would or would not exempt people from getting vaccinated.

Sunil Kumar Ragnath