On the morning of July 30, 2020, the Visayan Daily Star has announced it will be temporarily halting operations due to financial incapacity during the COVID-19 Pandemic by the 31st of August.

The pause in operations for the 38-year old newspaper company, that delivers local, national, and international news to thousands of Bacolodnon subscribers and following the closure of the giant network ABS-CBN Negros, mean that Bacolod City and Negros Occidental will be losing two of its major two news outlets by then.

According to an article by Ninfa Leonardia released on their July 30th issue, the COVID pandemic has deprived the newspaper of its daily sources of income to continue its publication. Advertisers, the main supporters of the newspaper, have their businesses badly hit by the COVID pandemic as well as unemployment rises and demand for commodities become more restricted to essentials.

However, Leonardia also remarked that the Daily Star will return as soon as it can recover financially.

Earlier this month, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson remarked that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis is estimated to have brought about P9.57 billion in economic losses to Negros Occidental during his State of the Provincial Address (SOPA) at the Provincial Capitol.

Aside from multiple establishments closing during the COVID-19 pandemic across the island, provincial economic affairs consultant Albee Benitez stated that 976,000 workers in the informal economy were highly affected during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which lasted for about a month, while around 83,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the province were also adversely affected, which could result in potential loss of P7 billion in cash remittances.