A second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States "could happen" but is "not inevitable", said White House health advisor Anthony Fauci on Wednesday.

The United States can prevent another wave of COVID-19 as long as states reopen "correctly", Fauci said in an interview on CNN. "Don't start leapfrogging over the recommendations of some of the guidelines because that's really tempting fate and asking for trouble."

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously warned that Americans need to prepare for the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall, which would run alongside the flu season.

Stay-at-home orders intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus could end up causing "irreparable damage" if imposed for too long, Fauci said last week.

"I don't want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for a prolonged period of time is the way to go," Fauci told CNBC.