There's new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about masks as COVID-19 cases surge.

The agency now says studies show wearing a mask protects you from COVID-19 just as much as it prevents you from spreading the virus to people around you.

Now it says that it also blocks outside germs from getting to you as well.

"This was obvious, and this is something that we've been teaching and recommending for months now," says Dr. Aaron Glatt, who is an infectious disease doctor at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital. He says though this may have been obvious to some, the CDC needed to have proven studies done before it could come out and say masks protect the wearer too. "It is simple, safe, it allows everything to stay open," Glatt says

Doctors say surgical masks are easy to get, relatively cheap, and the safest thing you can wear when you leave your house.

"A three-ply, surgical mask is to me the best thing that I can recommend to somebody right now," Glatt says. He adds, unless you work in a hospital, you don't need an N95 mask.

And though bandannas and neck gaiters might look fashionable, Glatt says a mask is better.

"I think that people shouldn't be wearing the bandannas, should not be wearing the gaiters if they want to do the best," Glatt says.

Experts say up 50% of transmission happens when people are asymptomatic - so it's important to wear a mask.

The CDC says the multi-layer cloth masks can both block up to 50%-70% of small droplets and particles.