The decision to rope in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials to the various states was taken Monday when Azad held a meeting with Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and senior health officials.

The central teams will be assisting the state government in identifying the private labs for tests and public and private hospitals for screening, diagnosis and treatment.

'It has been planned to involve central, state, local governmental establishments, medical colleges, institutes and private set-ups in this integrated strategy,' the statement said.

The central teams will also discuss the training of the doctors and paramedical personnel and also highlight the importance of awareness campaigns.

Azad Monday had admitted that letters sent to the states about the swine flu pandemic had little impact and said the central government would send senior officials to help them tackle the spread of the disease.

Pune tops the list of casualties with five deaths so far followed two deaths in Mumbai and one each in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Vadodara.

There are 960 swine-flu infected cases, with 95 new cases reported Monday.