I landed in HNL near the end of January, entered a taxi, and sneezed (and subsequently tried to restrain myself from sneezing more) The taxi driver asked 'you didn't just come from China did you?' to which I replied, 'No, Japan'. I had in fact been on Hokkaido, the first Japanese hotspot, surrounded by Chinese tourists in close quarters like packed public busess and shopping malls and restaurants, and did have respiratory symptoms (It may have been my usual monthly bug that I pick up with an immune system impacted by cancer and flying 3-5x a week, or it may have been COVID19, as both of the people I was with during that period also had a strange illness) We were already aware of an illness in Wuhan from late December, and it was certainly being discussed in Asia and in Europe by early January.
With the exception of the secluded beaches I know on the North Shore, wherever I went those few days was full of Chinese tourists. Waikiki shops and restaurants were as busy as always, or to me frankly even busier than I recalled seeing.
There is a very good chance that in fact COVID19 was being transmitted around HI (or more likely Oahu based on where Asian tourists visit) in January. Yet HI was not hard hit. This is similar to other places which never banned flights from China, and still did not see significant increase in cases.