The U.S. is running out of time to contain the budding COVID-19 outbreaks on the West Coast, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday.

While there are still just over 100 confirmed cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gottlieb said the undetected number is likely in the thousands.

"It's probably the case that we will have an epidemic here in the U.S., but we can dramatically affect the contours of that," he said on "Squawk Box." He called for local officials to cancel large gatherings and close schools. "We're losing valuable time. We need to start thinking about these measures in the regions where there is spread right now."

There are at least "two different chains of spread" in the U.S., added Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor who sits on the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina. One chain, he said, is in Washington state and one in California.