Americans among seven tourists hospitalized after drinking cocktails at a 5-star resort in Fiji

Seven foreign tourists, including an American, were hospitalized in Fiji after drinking cocktails at a resort bar, Fijian authorities said on Monday, just weeks later six tourists died Alcohol poisoning suspected in a separate incident in Laos.

According to Fiji’s Ministry of Health, all seven were admitted to hospital on Saturday evening with “nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms”.

They fell ill after drinking pina colada cocktails prepared in a bar at the five-star Warwick Fiji resort on the Coral Coast, about 45 miles west of the capital Suva, officials said.

A Health Ministry spokesman said the seven guests, aged 18 to 56, included four Australians, one American and two others whose nationalities were not specified.

One of the patients was discharged from Sigatoka Hospital near the hotel on Sunday, Tourism Minister Viliame Gavoka said.

The other six were transferred to the larger Lautoka Hospital on the island’s west coast, he said, with two of them discharged on Monday and two others leaving later in the day.

The two patients remaining at Lautoka Hospital were in a “stable condition” in the intensive care unit, he told a press conference.

David Sandoe, an Australian who said his daughter and granddaughter were hospitalized, told Sky News Australia that his relatives had been discharged from hospital and were due to fly home on Monday evening.

The Ministry of Health and Fiji Police are investigating the cause, Gavoka said, adding that results of “critical” toxicology tests usually take three or four days.

“Everyone is in disbelief that this happened,” he said.

Asked whether the illness was possibly linked to methanol poisoning, Gavoka said it was “something we don’t believe is possible in Fiji”.

While he declined to speculate on the cause, he said it was a “very isolated incident.”

Fiji tourism, which attracts nearly a million people each year, is “usually very safe”, he said.

The minister said he did not believe this was the result of a deliberate act.

The hotel bar in question was “very busy” that evening, he added, but only seven people were sickened by the pina coladas, which are normally “pretty harmless.”

A spokesman for Hotel Warwick Fiji said it was conducting an investigation and awaiting test results from health authorities.

“We do not have conclusive details at this time, but we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests,” the spokesperson said.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it was providing consular assistance to two families but declined further comment, citing “privacy obligations.”

Another incident in Laos last month involved two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died of suspected methanol poisoning According to local media, it was an evening in the city of Vang Vieng. The victims include British Simone White28, two young Australians, Holly Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones, and two young Danish womenAnne-Sofie Orkild Coyman and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, the BBC reported. Only one of the victims, 57-year-old US citizen James Louis Hutson, was male.

Police arrested the 34-year-old manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel and seven other employees for questioning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.