According to the Times, there have been more than 3.5 million virus cases across the US and 138,255 deaths.
Case numbers are surging across most of the US, particularly in states that were the first to reopen.
States were able to reopen if they were on a "downward trajectory" of cases over the past 14 days.
In April, officials hoped they hit the virus peak but now the country is averaging twice as many cases as then, at 63,000 a day.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Photo / AP
America's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the country never succeeded in driving the virus below a plateau of about 20,000 new cases a day, after its initial peak.
"When you looked at what happened in the European countries, when they had their peak and they locked down, they locked down to the tune of about 90 to 95 per cent of the country, truly locked down," he told Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook interview on Thursday, pointing to how countries got down to handfuls of new cases.
"What I think we need to do, and my colleagues agree, is we really almost need to regroup, call a time-out — not necessarily lock down again, but say that we've got to do this in a more measured way.
"We've got to get our arms around this and we've got to get this controlled."
The virus has once again started to ravage Washington State, which recorded the country's first case back in January.
At least 45,000 people in the state have been infected, and at least 1400 have died.
"If these trends were to continue, we would have to prepare to go back to where we were in March," Governor Jay Inslee said, referring to the state's swift lockdown measures.
