A Georgia man has died of a 'respiratory illness' while on holiday in the Dominican Republic - becoming the 13th American to die there in under a year.

Jerome Jester Jr. of Forsyth, Georgia, died on March 17 this year just a day after going sightseeing in the Caribbean nation, according to his family.

The 31-year-old had been on vacation with his sister, who called for an ambulance after he started having difficulty breathing.

Jester's sister told ABC News: 'He just dropped to his knees and started throwing up blood, and was calling for Mama.'

The closest towns nearest to the earthquake, Ridgecrest and Trona, both about 30 miles southeast of the epicenter, were calculated by the U.S. Geological Survey to have felt shaking on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale of between 1 and 2 — either so faint it wasn’t felt, or “weak” shaking that it might have only been felt by a few people, even those sitting still.