A top Dominican Republic official insisted Friday that his country is safe even as reports of more tourist deaths surfaced.
At least seven Americans have died in the Dominican Republic in 2019.
"There is no such thing as mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic," the country's minister of tourism, Francisco Javier Garcia, said at a news conference Friday, according to USA Today.
"There is not an avalanche of deaths."
He described the Dominican Republic as "a safe country."
On Friday, the U.S. State Department confirmed to the New York Daily News the deaths of two more American citizens in the Dominican Republic in recent years.
"We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in April 2018, as well as one in June 2016 in the Dominican Republic," a spokesperson for the State Department said.
"We offer our sincerest condolences to each of the families for their losses. Out of respect for the families during this difficult time, we do not have additional information to provide."
During Friday's news conference, Garcia contended that the seven deaths between January and June 2019 are actually lower than other years.
"Unfortunately, people die in situations that they don't want; these things happen and they will continue to happen in the world," Garcia said, according to the newspaper.
The most recent American tourist death to be reported in the Dominican was Joseph Allen, 55, of New Jersey, who was found dead June 13 at the Terra Linda Resort in Sosua.
Leyla Cox, 53, of Staten Island, N.Y., meanwhile, died June 10 in what was ruled a heart attack.
