The City of Boise has begun sampling the city’s water renewal system to collect important data on community levels of COVID-19. The approach will expand other data sources and provide information to local and regional governments and health agencies to make decisions about how and when to safely reopen. The city anticipates the data collected will increase understanding of the virus’s spread in Boise, even among residents who are infected but aren’t experiencing symptoms. The data may help track the effectiveness of safety precautions at containing COVID-19 and can help provide an early warning for any future outbreaks. City officials are working with Biobot, a company that specializes in wastewater epidemiology. Samples of wastewater have been collected before entering the city’s two water renewal Facilities. Once collected, the samples were sent to Biobot.