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On Friday, the Perry County Health Department announced that it had been notified of the first death related to COVID-19 in Perry County since the pandemic began.
“The Perry County Health Department is saddened to announce the death of a young adult in our community,” read the announcement posted to the health department’s Facebook page. “This is the first death of a Perry County resident that has been contributed to COVID-19. Our hearts go out to their family and friends during this difficult time.”
Health department director Sylvia Forester declined to comment further out of respect for the family, but the announcement was met with a number of Facebook posts from those claiming the death should not be counted as a COVID death for various reasons.
On Tuesday, Katherine Arrington, the mother of the deceased, Stephanie Arrington, 28, of Perryville, attempted to put those rumors to rest with a post on the health department’s Facebook page.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but all this ‘he said, she said’ stuff is getting annoying,” Arrington wrote. “I am assuming the COVID death is my daughter. Everyone is making comments about [it] but I have her death certificate. It states COVID-19 contributed to her death and I have read every comment and not one of these comments are from nobody in her family — not me or three of her sisters or three of her brothers.”
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She also reached out to the Republic-Monitor, saying simply, “If she wouldn’t have got COVID-19, she would be alive today.”
According to the health department, in order to meet the case definition of a COVID-19 death, as defined by the CDC and the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the death certificate must list COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.
Stephanie Arrington, who died June 28 at St. Clare Health Center in Fenton, was born Aug. 16, 1991, in Las Vegas, to Clint Arrington and Katherine (Gaulding) Arrington.
She had been a housekeeper at The Estates of Perryville and enjoyed writing poetry.
Survivors include her mother, Katherine Arrington of Las Vegas, NV; her father, Clint Arrington of Potosi; her fiance, Bryant Weibrecht of Perryville; three sisters, Alyssa Guillen of Las Vegas, Tamara Stortz of Perryville, Marissa Arrington of Las Vegas; three brothers, Nathan Arrington of Perryville, Eric Clark of Las Vegas; Anthony Arrington of Perryville, and her maternal grandmother, Marilyn Gaulding of Perryville.
A memorial service was held on Friday at Ford & Young Funeral Home in Perryville.
