I've lived in Kerala for twenty years. Can attest to this being due to better healthcare. There's also very little underreporting of deaths happening (my sister's a doctor directly involved with the government effort).

It's a bit like Cuba, with the Communist past and healthcare/life-expectancy that stands out (compared to say, per-capita income which is average).

Kerala setup 23 Oxygen plants - most of them setup in the last year. It is now exporting oxygen to the other Covid-hit states. The vast majority of beds now have oxygen supply - even all medical colleges.

People actually planned and did things right in Kerala. No one did so at the capital.

Someone who is from UP and lived in Kerala for few months, that state is world apart in terms of basic facilities. I mean computers in primary school (not to mention Linux)!!! In U.P., you won't find teachers teaching in most scholls.

One feature of the Kerala case, which does not get discussed much, is that the load is more or less evenly distributed throughout all the districts. This makes it easier to handle critical cases well.

And we used the calm times to ramp up the infrastructure. But if cases are rising beyond control, this will fail too.