Spain is reimbursing residents who were fined for violating COVID-19 lockdown rules

• Spain was one of the first countries to go into a nationwide lockdown in March 2020.

• It also had one of the strictest stay-at-home measures, and issued millions of fines for violations.

• Now the country is reimbursing residents who were fined for violating the initial lockdown.

Spanish citizens who were fined for violating a nearly three-month COVID-19 lockdown last spring will be reimbursed, the Associated Press reported.

In the announcement Friday, the Ministry of Territorial Affairs said the measure would apply to the 1.1 million fines that were issued to hundreds of thousands of people for violating stay-at-home orders that began in March 2020, The New York Times reported.

Not every fine that was issued has been paid, AP reported. Spain said it collected around 115 million euros, or $134 million, in fines as of July, The Times reported.

In March 2020, Spain ordered its 47 million residents to stay home as the novel coronavirus spread across the country, The Washington Post reported. It was the second European country, after Italy, to order a nationwide lockdown.