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A sign indicating that face masks are sold out at a CVS Pharmacy in Queens, NYC.

US health officials said they’ll need an additional 270 million face masks to fight the deadly new coronavirus outbreak — as they asked Congress to greenlight a $2.5 billion funding plan.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday the country has a stockpile of 30 million N95 surgical masks, but that 300 million would be needed to protect health workers in an outbreak.

“This is an unprecedented, potentially severe health challenge globally,” Azar said before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

The White House budget office said the $2.5 billion response plan would be used to develop a vaccine, as well as for protective equipment and response measures.

Senators from both parties were skeptical that the White House’s request was enough to help prepare the country for a pandemic.

“If you low-ball something like this, you’ll pay for it later,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala, the chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, said the government’s handling of the outbreak has been “unacceptable.”

“We cannot afford to plan on the cheap or at the last minute,” she said.

Azar defended the administration’s response, noting that nearly two months after the first alarms were sounded, there’s no evidence the virus has spread in the US beyond people who were infected overseas and some of their relatives.

He credited travel restrictions put in place by President Trump at the beginning of the month for giving “our country valuable time to prepare.”

“We cannot hermetically seal off the United States to a virus and we need to be realistic about that,” he said.

“We’ll have more cases in the United States, and we’ve been very transparent about that.” If that happens, “we’ll work to mitigate those,” he added.

There are 57 cases of the virus in the US, Azar said. They include 14 people who either went to China or were close relatives of travelers; three people evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak in China; and 40 passengers returned from the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Hours earlier, in a press conference from India, Trump sought to quell fears of the virus spreading in the US.

“We have very few people with it,” he said, adding that “a lot of talent” and “a lot of brainpower” were working on the response.

He said the $2.5 billion request would be used to strengthen US defenses “in case something should happen” and to help other countries.

With Post wires