Yeah, I want to avoid making it incredibly difficult for new people to join (and for current players to not get completely lost in the background of the story), and I think I've figured out a way to make it pretty clear-cut as to what's going on.

That does sound really similar! I'm glad I'm not the only one with that kind of idea. xD I think I'll definitely be doing updates from 'outside' the quarantined area; thank you for the comment! :)