The T.S.A. has issued hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for mask mandate violations.

Over the previous six months, the Transportation Safety Administration ramped up civil citations to passengers, largely aboard airplanes, who refused to adjust to masks mandates, slapping them with greater than $640,000 in proposed fines, in keeping with a authorities report launched on Monday.

It was a stark improve in contrast with a six-month interval from February to Sepember of final 12 months, when the T.S.A. issued greater than 2,000 warnings and fined simply 10 passengers a complete of $2,350, in keeping with a information launch in October.

In complete, between Feb. 2, 2021, and March 7, 2022, the company fined 922 individuals for violating masks mandates and issued 2,709 warnings, the report, by the Authorities Accountability Workplace, mentioned.

The carrying of masks to cease the unfold of the coronavirus grew to become a cultural flash level through the early months of the pandemic and has continued to be polarizing.

Final week the Biden administration prolonged the masks mandate for air journey and public transportation to April 18, whereas the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention evaluations the coverage to see whether it is nonetheless crucial.

Each the T.S.A. and the Federal Aviation Administration examine incidents during which individuals don’t adjust to masks mandates. The T.S.A.’s authority shouldn’t be restricted to air journey, however covers airports and different modes of public transportation. Throughout 2021, the F.A.A. proposed greater than $5 million in fines for unruly airplane passengers; a lot of the incidents had been masks associated.

R. Carter Langston, a spokesman for the T.S.A., mentioned the method for reporting incidents grew to become higher understood previously six months, which is why the citations and penalties elevated so considerably.

In late October, the chairman of the Home Homeland Safety Committee, Consultant Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, urged the T.S.A. to implement extra penalties.

The report didn’t embody any suggestions for the company.