(WTVO) — A new study has found that immunity acquired from a COVID-19 infection provides protection for at least 10 months and is equal to about two doses of mRNA vaccine.

Researchers at the University of Washington found that immunity from infection cut the risk of hospitalization and death by almost 90%.

“This is really good news, in the sense that protection against severe disease and death after infection is really quite sustained at 10 months,” said the senior study author, Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. 

The study still recommended booster shots until more research is conducted.

The U.S. is still seeing an average of more than 40,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report included 65 studies from 19 countries.

“What Europe did with this evidence made a lot of sense, which is where evidence of past infection was seen as essentially equal to vaccination in terms of requirements to go into events or for employment,” Murray said, according to NBC News.