"(President Donald Trump) is maliciously tightening U.S.' illegal sanctions with aim of draining Iran's resources needed in the fight against #COVID19 while our citizens are dying from it," Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted on Saturday.

Iran is among the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 outside of China and the country has shuttered all schools and universities until the end of the country's calendar year on March 20, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.

Announcing the latest deaths from the virus, a health ministry official said in a televised briefing that the tally of confirmed infections had increased by more than 1,000 during the last 24 hours, totaling 5,823 by Saturday.

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"The world can no longer be silent as U.S. #EconomicTerrorism is supplanted by its #MedicalTerrorism," Zarif said, without referring to any new sanctions.

President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and senior U.S. health officials announced last Saturday afternoon that the country would expand its travel ban on Iran as a response to a global increase in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The announcement comes in the wake of the first U.S. death due to the virus in Washington state.

Under the new travel restrictions, no Iranians or non-Americans who have been to the country in the last 14 days will be allowed to enter the U.S., Pence said.

Trump has said he hopes the sanctions will limit Tehran's ballistic missile program and influence across the Middle East while Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and its missiles are for deterrence and defensive purposes.