Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III issued the alert Monday after pointing to several regions that are experiencing the 85 percent uptick in the disease when compared to last year’s figures.

“From January 1 to June 29 this year, most cases are from Western Visayas (13,164), Calabarzon (11,474), Central Visayas (9,199), Soccsksargen (9,107), and Northern Mindanao (8,739),” the health ministry said in a statement.

“Dengue cases nationwide now reach a cumulative figure of 106,630. This is 85 percent higher compared to the same period last year.”

The surprising increase in cases usually comes every 3-4 years with the last known increase having been in 2016, Duque said, making this year’s figures as expected.

A researcher at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine may have found a way to stop the spread of Dengue by transmitting a vaccine from human to mosquito

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dengue is common to more than 100 countries and, on average, about 400 million people will get infected with the disease each year. Of that number, 100 million will get sick and 22,000 will die from the infection.

The virus is usually spread through the bite of an infected mosquito.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, rashes, and aches and pains. There is no known cure or medication for the disease.

Health officials warned the public to implement the “4S strategy” which encourages them to “search and destroy mosquito breeding places.” It also advises them to wear long sleeves and wear insect repellent and, if any symptoms show, they should consult a doctor immediately.

He signed an executive order that effectively restricts companies in the US from using foreign telecoms which is heavily believed to pose national security risks.

The order does not specifically name any company, but is believed to refer to Huawei.

The Chinese tech giant said in a statement that barring its business in the United States would only adversely affect Americans companies.

Few countries, led by the US, have raised concerns in the past few months that Huawei products could be used by China for surveillance

Huawei has said in a statement that its work does not pose any threats at all and says it is not dependent on the Chinese government.

Huawei released a statement on Thursday in which the company said: “Restricting Huawei from doing business in the US will not make the US more secure or stronger.

“Instead, this will only serve to limit the US to inferior yet more expensive alternatives, leaving the US lagging behind in 5G deployment, and eventually harming the interests of US companies and consumers.”

The statement also included, “unreasonable restrictions on Huawei raised other serious legal issues”. Huawei has outright denied the allegations against them.

On Tuesday, its chairman Liang Hua said it was “willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments” during a meeting in London, as concerns over the security status of its widely-used products used in next-generation 5G mobile networks continued to grow.

President Trump doesn’t specifically name or point exclusively to Huawei in his executive order but the purpose is clear: to keep China’s national champion out of the US.

Huawei has repeatedly reported that if the United States ban Huawei from its networks, they are going to be the ones to lose out and not Huawei.

And that’s absolutely true. Reason being that even without the United States market, Huawei controls at about 40 to 60% of the networks around the globe, industry analysts say.

However, Huawei may not necessarily need the US market, but it definitley needs the key components that it gets from the United States.