It appears the State Department is always ready and willing to set aside time for coming up with new creative ways to economically punish Tehran, widescale coronavirus panic and markets in free-fall notwithstanding:

Pompeo on Tuesday said the State Department is blacklisting nine entities based in South Africa, Hong Kong and China, as well as three Iranian individuals, for engaging in "significant transactions" to trade in Iranian petrochemicals.

While he did not name them, Pompeo said the step included blacklisting Iran's armed forces social security investment company and its director for investing in sanctioned entities. 

This included sanctions and travel restrictions on five Iranian nuclear scientists to boot. 

Over the past month leaders in Tehran have been pleading for greater outside humanitarian assistance, while also consistently pointing out that the US sanctions regimen is making the pandemic worse, restricting the medicines and equipment crucial to both treating Covid-19 and mitigating the spread.