diff --git a/block/block-copy.c b/block/block-copy.c
index bb8d0569f2..f7428a7c08 100644
--- a/block/block-copy.c
+++ b/block/block-copy.c
@@ -622,8 +622,10 @@ out:
          * block_copy_task_run. If it fails, it means some task already failed
          * for real reason, let's return first failure.
          * Still, assert that we don't rewrite failure by success.
+         *
+         * Note: ret may be positive here because of block-status result.
          */
-        assert(ret == 0 || aio_task_pool_status(aio) < 0);
+        assert(ret >= 0 || aio_task_pool_status(aio) < 0);
         ret = aio_task_pool_status(aio);
 
         aio_task_pool_free(aio);