Campaign in ‘new phase’

Confronting concerns that too many Americans aren’t getting vaccinated, President Joe Biden said yesterday that his administration was beginning a ‘‘new phase’’ of its Covid-19 inoculation campaign to convince more people to get a shot, and to make it easier for them to do so. At stake is his promise to curb a contagion that has taken nearly 600,000 lives and cost millions of jobs in the US – and make it safer for people to gather for Fourth of July barbecues, a symbolic goal Biden set a little more than a month after taking office. ‘‘We need you. We need you to bring it home,’’ Biden urged Americans from the White House. ‘‘Get vaccinated. In two months, let’s celebrate our independence as a nation, and our independence from this virus.’’