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The Big Apple’s garment district will this week begin manufacturing critically-needed surgical gowns for the city’s health care workers amid the coronavirus crisis, providing jobs for up to 500 New Yorkers, The Post has learned.

“Operation Local Production” was conceived during an Easter Sunday phone call between White House equipment czar Peter Navarro and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio when the city reached out to the Trump administration with an urgent request for hospital protective gear.

Working with private enterprise and the National Council of Textile Organizations, the White House was able to secure a million yards of waterproof fabric from healthcare company Owens & Minor and within days have it on a UPS truck bound for the Big Apple.

In another act of goodwill, UPS volunteered a truck and driver which drove the fabric from North Carolina to the Big Apple in just two days, the White House said.

The fabric will be sent to four lead manufacturing sites, including Course of Trade, a non-profit organization in Sunset Park which provides free sewing training to New Yorkers in-need, supporting up to 500 jobs, de Blasio’s office said.

“Our healthcare workers are heroes on the front line – we must use every tool we’ve got to ensure their safety,” de Blasio said in a statement.

“I’m so thankful to Peter Navarro and so proud of the New Yorkers who are coming together in this time of need to help others,” he continued.

More than 40,000 gowns will be made with the Owens & Minor fabric this week, before ramping up to a total of 400,000 by May 23, according to the mayor’s office.

At a press conference on Monday morning, Hizzoner said the city’s supply of PPE was better than several weeks ago, with the rate of COVID-19 cases in the Big Apple now leveling off — but said a dearth of surgical gowns were a growing problem.

“For our heroes in our hospitals, the protective personal equipment in their armor. We’re going to keep demanding the federal government provide us what we need for our heroes but we know sometimes those demands are not met,” he said.

The city has a sufficient supply of N95 masks, gloves and booties, as well as face and surgical shields, to last this week, but said Big Apple officials were struggling to find a reliable supply for surgical gowns.

“We made the decision to manufacture our own here in New York City. That is now starting to become a major part of the equation,” he said, “[but] even with that we do not have a secure supply.”

“We’re not sure we’re going to have enough to get to Sunday of this week, that’s how tight the situation is. This is an area I’m really concerned about.”

De Blasio called on President Trump to further invoke the Defense Production Act to compel more private U.S. companies to turn over their production lines for PPE production.

“Imagine the greatest country in the world and we can’t get surgical gowns for our largest city to even get through our week,” he said. “It certainly speaks to the lack of the defense production act.”

Hizzoner last week sounded the alarm about emergency protection gear, saying the city had “barely enough” to protect its frontline healthcare workers.

The mayor’s office had ordered fabric from China to produce more than 300,0000 gowns but when that never arrived, New York officials turned to the White House.

Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy, said the operation would help reinvigorate New York’s famous garment industry and ensure it had a long future.

“New York’s famous garment industry was all but destroyed by the sweat shops of Asia, leaving Americans defenseless in this new war where our weapons range from masks and booties to surgical gowns,” Navarro said in a statement.

“By setting in motion a plan to reinvigorate that garment industry in just seven days, Operation Local Production perfectly captures the spirit, speed, and innovation of a new Trump economy springing up swiftly in Trump time to combat the invisible virus. This is Buy and Build American at its very best,” he added.

Last month, White House officials sent protective equipment to frontline NYPD detectives just 16 hours after receiving an SOS email from the chief of department in an effort known as “Operation Blue Bloods.”