The province of Malaga has recorded at least 220,000 police reports from June to December for people not wearing a face mask - or not wearing it properly- breaking the order of 14 July in which the use of masks was made mandatory with a penalty of 100 euros.

So far, however, barely 17 per cent of fines have been processed by the Junta de Andalucía and very few of those have actually been collected.

Although, at the moment, there is no central registry, SUR has obtained data from most of the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.

But, to the 220,000 figure, you need to add the fines imposed in medium and small towns and those issued by the National Police and the Guardia Civil, so the number could be much higher.

Of all the municipalities that have provided data, Malaga city is the one that has registered the most fines. The Local Police have confirmed that 205,353 fines were issued in the six-month period.

In other larger municipalities on the coast Fuengirola issued about 5,000, Mijas only imposed 1,250 and Marbella 1,980.

Estepona issued 380 fines in just over six months while in Torremolinos the number was 2,600 and Benalmádena 4,800.

In Rincón de la Victoria the number of fines issued between June and December was just over a thousand, while in Vélez-Málaga it was slightly below 1,400. Nerja and Antequera did not provide figures.

In the Guadalhorce Valley the situation is similar between its main towns. In Cártama 556 fines have been imposed, Alhaurín de la Torre (400) Alhaurín el Grande and Coín (300).

In Ronda, the total is 599 - with the majority being for not wearing a mask.

Reports for not wearing masks in Malaga province

The difference between localities has several explanations. The first is that in many of them the majority of fines would have been issued by the National Police or the Guardia Civil, something that, for example, does not happen in the Malaga city. At the moment, the total number of fines issued by these two law-enforcement bodies has not been revealed.

The second reason is that some town halls have been clearly more flexible with their citizens, and in most cases they have chosen to warn rather than fine.

According to the Junta de Andalucía, the authority that is in charge of processing them, only 38,433 have been passed through the system. Of these, not one has yet reached the person who had breached the order of 14 July in which the use of masks was made mandatory with a penalty of 100 euros.