diff --git a/agent/engine/docker_container_engine.go b/agent/engine/docker_container_engine.go
index e462d7db01d..7b42eab8dc5 100644
--- a/agent/engine/docker_container_engine.go
+++ b/agent/engine/docker_container_engine.go
@@ -61,9 +61,9 @@ const (
 	// output will be suppressed in debug mode
 	pullStatusSuppressDelay = 2 * time.Second
 
-	// statsInactivityTimeout controls the amount of time we hold open a
+	// StatsInactivityTimeout controls the amount of time we hold open a
 	// connection to the Docker daemon waiting for stats data
-	statsInactivityTimeout = 5 * time.Second
+	StatsInactivityTimeout = 5 * time.Second
 )
 
 // DockerClient interface to make testing it easier
@@ -809,7 +809,7 @@ func (dg *dockerGoClient) Stats(id string, ctx context.Context) (<-chan *docker.
 		Stats:             stats,
 		Stream:            true,
 		Context:           ctx,
-		InactivityTimeout: statsInactivityTimeout,
+		InactivityTimeout: StatsInactivityTimeout,
 	}
 
 	go func() {
diff --git a/agent/stats/container.go b/agent/stats/container.go
index 6ca6ba6d94f..ca8f8c26951 100644
--- a/agent/stats/container.go
+++ b/agent/stats/container.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ func newStatsContainer(dockerID string, client ecsengine.DockerClient, resolver
 func (container *StatsContainer) StartStatsCollection() {
 	// Create the queue to store utilization data from docker stats
 	container.statsQueue = NewQueue(ContainerStatsBufferLength)
+	container.statsQueue.Reset()
 	go container.collect()
 }
 
diff --git a/agent/stats/engine.go b/agent/stats/engine.go
index af7d42935a6..d04feb7526c 100644
--- a/agent/stats/engine.go
+++ b/agent/stats/engine.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ package stats
 //go:generate go run ../../scripts/generate/mockgen.go github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agent/agent/stats Engine mock/$GOFILE
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	containerChangeHandler = "DockerStatsEngineDockerEventsHandler"
 	listContainersTimeout  = 10 * time.Minute
+	queueResetThreshold    = 2 * ecsengine.StatsInactivityTimeout
 )
 
 // DockerContainerMetadataResolver implements ContainerMetadataResolver for
@@ -67,6 +69,7 @@ type DockerStatsEngine struct {
 // dockerStatsEngine is a singleton object of DockerStatsEngine.
 // TODO make dockerStatsEngine not a singleton object
 var dockerStatsEngine *DockerStatsEngine
+var EmptyMetricsError = errors.New("No task metrics to report")
 
 // ResolveTask resolves the api task object, given container id.
 func (resolver *DockerContainerMetadataResolver) ResolveTask(dockerID string) (*api.Task, error) {
@@ -234,7 +237,7 @@ func (engine *DockerStatsEngine) GetInstanceMetrics() (*ecstcs.MetricsMetadata,
 
 	if len(taskMetrics) == 0 {
 		// Not idle. Expect taskMetrics to be there.
-		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("No task metrics to report")
+		return nil, nil, EmptyMetricsError
 	}
 
 	// Reset current stats. Retaining older stats results in incorrect utilization stats
@@ -398,6 +401,13 @@ func (engine *DockerStatsEngine) getContainerMetricsForTask(taskArn string) ([]*
 			engine.doRemoveContainer(container, taskArn)
 			continue
 		}
+
+		if !container.statsQueue.resetThresholdElapsed(queueResetThreshold) &&
+			!container.statsQueue.enoughDatapointsInBuffer() {
+			seelog.Debug("Stats not ready for container %s", dockerID)
+			continue
+		}
+
 		// Container is not terminal. Get CPU stats set.
 		cpuStatsSet, err := container.statsQueue.GetCPUStatsSet()
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/agent/stats/queue.go b/agent/stats/queue.go
index d02a571c64d..a6f1ee63205 100644
--- a/agent/stats/queue.go
+++ b/agent/stats/queue.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"math"
 	"sync"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agent/agent/tcs/model/ecstcs"
 	"github.com/cihub/seelog"
@@ -27,11 +28,14 @@ const (
 	BytesInMiB = 1024 * 1024
 )
 
+const minimumQueueDatapoints = 2
+
 // Queue abstracts a queue using UsageStats slice.
 type Queue struct {
-	buffer     []UsageStats
-	maxSize    int
-	bufferLock sync.RWMutex
+	buffer        []UsageStats
+	maxSize       int
+	lastResetTime time.Time
+	bufferLock    sync.RWMutex
 }
 
 // NewQueue creates a queue.
@@ -46,7 +50,7 @@ func NewQueue(maxSize int) *Queue {
 func (queue *Queue) Reset() {
 	queue.bufferLock.Lock()
 	defer queue.bufferLock.Unlock()
-
+	queue.lastResetTime = time.Now()
 	queue.buffer = queue.buffer[:0]
 }
 
@@ -133,6 +137,19 @@ func getMemoryUsagePerc(s *UsageStats) float64 {
 
 type getUsageFunc func(*UsageStats) float64
 
+func (queue *Queue) resetThresholdElapsed(timeout time.Duration) bool {
+	queue.bufferLock.RLock()
+	defer queue.bufferLock.RUnlock()
+	duration := time.Since(queue.lastResetTime)
+	return duration.Seconds() > timeout.Seconds()
+}
+
+func (queue *Queue) enoughDatapointsInBuffer() bool {
+	queue.bufferLock.RLock()
+	defer queue.bufferLock.RUnlock()
+	return len(queue.buffer) >= minimumQueueDatapoints
+}
+
 // getCWStatsSet gets the stats set for either CPU or Memory based on the
 // function pointer.
 func (queue *Queue) getCWStatsSet(f getUsageFunc) (*ecstcs.CWStatsSet, error) {
diff --git a/agent/stats/queue_test.go b/agent/stats/queue_test.go
index af705ab8fe1..6e9d3e3791c 100644
--- a/agent/stats/queue_test.go
+++ b/agent/stats/queue_test.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -309,3 +310,55 @@ func TestCpuStatsSetNotSetToInfinity(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("Computed cpuStatsSet.SampleCount (%d) != expected value (%d)", sampleCount, 1)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestResetThresholdElapsed(t *testing.T) {
+	// create a queue
+	queueLength := 3
+	queue := NewQueue(queueLength)
+
+	queue.Reset()
+
+	thresholdElapsed := queue.resetThresholdElapsed(2 * time.Millisecond)
+	assert.False(t, thresholdElapsed, "Queue is NOT expected to elapsed the threshold right after reset")
+
+	time.Sleep(3 * time.Millisecond)
+	thresholdElapsed = queue.resetThresholdElapsed(2 * time.Millisecond)
+
+	assert.True(t, thresholdElapsed, "Queue is expected to elapse the threshold")
+
+}
+func TestEnoughDatapointsInBuffer(t *testing.T) {
+	// timestamps will be used to simulate +Inf CPU Usage
+	// timestamps[0] = timestamps[1]
+	timestamps := []time.Time{
+		parseNanoTime("2015-02-12T21:22:05.131117533Z"),
+		parseNanoTime("2015-02-12T21:22:05.131117533Z"),
+		parseNanoTime("2015-02-12T21:22:05.333776335Z"),
+	}
+	cpuTimes := []uint64{
+		22400432,
+		116499979,
+		248503503,
+	}
+	memoryUtilizationInBytes := []uint64{
+		3649536,
+		3649536,
+		3649536,
+	}
+	// create a queue
+	queueLength := 3
+	queue := NewQueue(queueLength)
+
+	enoughDataPoints := queue.enoughDatapointsInBuffer()
+	assert.False(t, enoughDataPoints, "Queue is expected NOT having enough data points right after creation")
+	for i, time := range timestamps {
+		queue.Add(&ContainerStats{cpuUsage: cpuTimes[i], memoryUsage: memoryUtilizationInBytes[i], timestamp: time})
+	}
+
+	enoughDataPoints = queue.enoughDatapointsInBuffer()
+	assert.True(t, enoughDataPoints, "Queue is expected to have enough data points when it has more than 2 msgs queued")
+
+	queue.Reset()
+	enoughDataPoints = queue.enoughDatapointsInBuffer()
+	assert.False(t, enoughDataPoints, "Queue is expected NOT having enough data points right after RESET")
+}
diff --git a/agent/tcs/client/client.go b/agent/tcs/client/client.go
index 1bb73aea1f6..d477e50f9ea 100644
--- a/agent/tcs/client/client.go
+++ b/agent/tcs/client/client.go
@@ -137,12 +137,18 @@ func (cs *clientServer) publishMetrics() {
 	// Publish metrics immediately after we connect and wait for ticks. This makes
 	// sure that there is no data loss when a scheduled metrics publishing fails
 	// due to a connection reset.
-	cs.publishMetricsOnce()
+	err := cs.publishMetricsOnce()
+	if err != nil && err != stats.EmptyMetricsError {
+		seelog.Warnf("Error getting instance metrics: %v", err)
+	}
 	// don't simply range over the ticker since its channel doesn't ever get closed
 	for {
 		select {
 		case <-cs.publishTicker.C:
-			cs.publishMetricsOnce()
+			err := cs.publishMetricsOnce()
+			if err != nil {
+				seelog.Warnf("Error getting instance metrics: %v", err)
+			}
 		case <-cs.endPublish:
 			return
 		}
@@ -150,20 +156,21 @@ func (cs *clientServer) publishMetrics() {
 }
 
 // publishMetricsOnce is invoked by the ticker to periodically publish metrics to backend.
-func (cs *clientServer) publishMetricsOnce() {
+func (cs *clientServer) publishMetricsOnce() error {
 	// Get the list of objects to send to backend.
 	requests, err := cs.metricsToPublishMetricRequests()
 	if err != nil {
-		seelog.Warnf("Error getting instance metrics: %v", err)
+		return err
 	}
 
 	// Make the publish metrics request to the backend.
 	for _, request := range requests {
 		err = cs.MakeRequest(request)
 		if err != nil {
-			seelog.Warnf("Error publishing metrics: %v. Request: %v", err, request)
+			return err
 		}
 	}
+	return nil
 }
 
 // metricsToPublishMetricRequests gets task metrics and converts them to a list of PublishMetricRequest