**5. Conclusions**

The innovation of this research is twofold—first, we apply PCA to measure systematic risk, and second, we discern systematic risk before and during COVID-19. In particular, the sectors that increase the most in terms of exposure to systematic risk are—the restaurants, clothing, and insurance sectors; in contrast, the sectors that show a decrease in systematic risk during the pandemic are—automakers and tobacco sectors, showing resilience during the pandemic. The results indicate that for portfolio managers it is better to pick stocks that belong to sectors, such as automakers and tobacco sectors in times of health crises such as pandemics, enhancing the benefits of diversification, and creating a shield against the increase of systematic risk due to these kinds of shocks. Consequently, further research could use the methodology proposed in this paper to measure systematic risk to better protect against crises such as COVID-19, thus having practical implications around the world (Video, https://youtu.be/o5SIhEHrRW8).

*Psychosocial, Educational, and Economic Impacts of COVID-19*
