Willsboro town Supervisor Shaun Gillilland, right, is sworn in as chairman of the Essex County Board of Supervisors in January 2020 by Essex County Clerk Joseph Provoncha, left, at the board’s organizational meeting. Gillilland’s wife Linda looks on. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

Some Essex County residents are refusing to adhere to public health orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, and elected officials are looking for answers.

The Essex County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday discussed piecing together a plan to address what board Chairman Shaun Gillilland described as “belligerent calls” to the county Health Department, in which some residents are refusing to cooperate with quarantine or isolation orders.

When a person tests positive for COVID-19, the county Health Department issues that person a legal order to stay in isolation. When a person is identified as a close contact who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, or when a person has traveled from a place under a travel advisory, the Health Department issues that person a legal order to quarantine. Either way, the county Health Department is required to call residents to inform them of these orders and gather information from them.

Essex County Public Health Director Linda Beers told supervisors on Tuesday that in Essex County, the department has pledged to call every positive case within 24 hours, and call all contacts within 48 hours.

This part of the department’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic — issuing health orders, keeping tabs on positive cases and reaching out to those who may have been exposed — is very time consuming, according to Gillilland, a Republican from Willsboro.

“The process is grinding a little bit. It takes time to get through it,” he said.

The process is made more difficult by those who don’t comply, according to Gillilland.

One example: “(Essex County Attorney) Dan Manning had to deal with an individual who did not want to isolate himself because the Christmas shopping season wasn’t over yet,” Gillilland said.

Gillilland suggested that supervisors personally intervene when one of their constituents refuses to quarantine or isolate, rather than have the noncompliant person “wasting people’s time at public health.”

“I ask that supervisors intervene,” he told his colleagues during a virtual meeting. “I hope everybody would be OK with that. If not, let me know. We all know our constituencies better.”