diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3adfd3137fd..34a4f9e90b6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ If you are using Maven without the BOM, add this to your dependencies:
 <dependency>
   <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
   <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner</artifactId>
-  <version>6.93.0</version>
+  <version>6.99.0</version>
 </dependency>
 
 ```
diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/HeaderInterceptor.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/HeaderInterceptor.java
index 252dd2f2ae8..bec062db907 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/HeaderInterceptor.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/HeaderInterceptor.java
@@ -189,7 +189,9 @@ private void processHeader(
           float afeLatency = serverTimingMetrics.get(AFE_TIMING_HEADER);
           compositeTracer.recordAFELatency(afeLatency);
         } else {
-          compositeTracer.recordAfeHeaderMissingCount(1L);
+          // Disable afe_connectivity_error_count metric as AFE header is disabled in backend
+          // currently.
+          // compositeTracer.recordAfeHeaderMissingCount(1L);
         }
       }
     } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
index 103d070f9e0..aeb9487e2ec 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
@@ -390,9 +390,9 @@ public void testNoServerTimingHeader() throws IOException, InterruptedException
 
     assertFalse(checkIfMetricExists(metricReader, BuiltInMetricsConstant.AFE_LATENCIES_NAME));
     assertFalse(checkIfMetricExists(metricReader, BuiltInMetricsConstant.GFE_LATENCIES_NAME));
-    MetricData afeConnectivityMetricData =
-        getMetricData(metricReader, BuiltInMetricsConstant.AFE_CONNECTIVITY_ERROR_NAME);
-    assertThat(getAggregatedValue(afeConnectivityMetricData, expectedAttributes)).isEqualTo(1);
+    // Metric is disabled currently
+    assertFalse(
+        checkIfMetricExists(metricReader, BuiltInMetricsConstant.AFE_CONNECTIVITY_ERROR_NAME));
 
     spannerNoHeader.close();
     serverNoHeader.shutdown();