diff --git a/official/cv/YOLOv5/src/util.py b/official/cv/YOLOv5/src/util.py
index 5bc8fd781e59f6687c9d478163fd616c1e9d99b3..275c13203fc0ab1a676185e167b92b90255a04c3 100644
--- a/official/cv/YOLOv5/src/util.py
+++ b/official/cv/YOLOv5/src/util.py
@@ -194,18 +194,19 @@ class COCOEvaluator:
         self.logger.info(f"File list: {file_path}")
 
         for path in file_path:
-            ann_list = []
-            try:
-                with open(path, 'r') as f:
-                    ann_list = json.load(f)
-            except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
-                pass    # json file is empty
-            else:
-                ann_ids = set(ann['image_id'] for ann in ann_list)
-                diff_ids = ann_ids - dt_ids_set
-                ann_list = [ann for ann in ann_list if ann['image_id'] in diff_ids]
-                dt_ids_set = dt_ids_set | diff_ids
-                dt_list.extend(ann_list)
+            if not path.startswith("."):
+                ann_list = []
+                try:
+                    with open(path, 'r') as f:
+                        ann_list = json.load(f)
+                except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
+                    pass    # json file is empty
+                else:
+                    ann_ids = set(ann['image_id'] for ann in ann_list)
+                    diff_ids = ann_ids - dt_ids_set
+                    ann_list = [ann for ann in ann_list if ann['image_id'] in diff_ids]
+                    dt_ids_set = dt_ids_set | diff_ids
+                    dt_list.extend(ann_list)
         return dt_list
 
     def get_coco_from_dt_list(self, dt_list) -> COCO: